Who reports what, to whom and by when: the checklist of payroll obligations in Switzerland, from hiring to audit, with the records to keep.
Reading time: 17 min
A Swiss employer paying a first salary already has four counterparties, and none of them writes at the same moment. The compensation fund expects instalments and then a declaration in January, the pension institution expects an affiliation, the accident insurer a contract, and the cantonal tax administration a deduction.
Being compliant on payroll does not mean knowing employment law by heart, it means keeping a calendar: knowing who reports what, to whom, by when, and which record stays on file.
This page follows the order of the obligations over time, from hiring to audit.
In brief
- Open your affiliations before the first salary payment, since contributions are withheld from the very first payroll run.
- Put two dates in your calendar: the 10th day following the period for your contribution instalments, and 30 January for your annual salary declaration.
- Give every new employee written information on their terms within a month of their start date, then repeat that written step at every change.
- Keep the records that feed your accounts for ten years, and keep from the personnel file what remains necessary, without setting yourself a period the law does not state.
What "being compliant" means for a Swiss employer
Payroll compliance is not a state, it is a series of appointments kept with four organizations that do not talk to each other. Our guide to payroll compliance and regulations in Switzerland sets out the regulations; this page carries the calendar.
Your four counterparties are these:
- the compensation fund, which collects AVS, AI, APG and AC contributions, and administers family allowances;
- the pension institution, for the LPP of the employees who are subject to it;
- the accident insurer, for LAA cover;
- the cantonal tax administration, for the withholding tax of the people concerned.
Each has its own form and its own deadlines. An SME of eight people in Fribourg produces four separate flows for a single monthly payroll, and it is that mismatch that puts companies in default.
Before the first salary: the affiliations to open
The most expensive moment to catch up on comes before the first payroll run: a missing affiliation only shows up when it has to be regularized.
Affiliation to a compensation fund
Your company must be attached to a compensation fund before paying a salary, because the legal mechanism requires it by itself: contributions levied on income from employed activity are deducted from each payment of salary, and paid periodically by the employer together with the employer's contribution.
Source: Swiss Confederation, Federal Act on Old-Age and Survivors' Insurance (LAVS), RS 831.10, art. 14 para. 1, as at 1 January 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
No official document sets a figure for the deadline on this formality: register before the first payroll run.
One exception covers very low salaries, and it cannot be separated from its condition. In sectors other than private households and the artistic and media sectors, contributions must not be levied where the salary does not exceed CHF 2,500 a year per employer, and the employee does not require the contributions to be paid. An administrative assistant paid CHF 2,000 over the year in Neuchâtel can therefore ask for that deduction.
Source: AVS/AI Information Centre, memento 2.04, Contributions to AVS, AI, APG and AC on salaries of minor importance, as at 1 January 2025 and not 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
Affiliation to a pension institution (LPP)
The rule fits in one sentence: employers who employ staff subject to mandatory insurance must be affiliated to a pension institution entered in the register of occupational pension schemes. What remains is to know who is subject to it, and the official memento lists the situations that are not:
- until 31 December following the 17th birthday;
- where the person has reached the reference age;
- where their income with that employer does not exceed CHF 22,680 a year, that is CHF 1,890 a month;
- where their employer is not liable for AVS contributions;
- where their fixed-term contract does not exceed three months;
- where they carry out a secondary activity while already being insured for their main one.
Source: AVS/AI Information Centre, memento 6.06, Obligation to join a pension institution under the LPP, as at 1 January 2025 and not 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
The fifth line is the one SMEs miss most often. A cook hired in Verbier for a two-month season does not fall under mandatory insurance, whereas a kitchen assistant hired for eight months does.
Accident insurance (LAA)
Your employees are covered against accidents by a contract taken out with an LAA insurer. The split of premiums follows a fixed rule: those for mandatory insurance against occupational accidents and illnesses are payable by the employer, those for mandatory insurance against non-occupational accidents are in principle payable by the worker, whose share the company deducts from the salary before settling the total.
Source: Federal Office of Public Health, accident insurance, premiums, verified on 13 August 2026.
Cover for non-occupational accidents also depends on an hours threshold: it applies if the person is employed at least eight hours a week by the same employer. A cashier hired for six hours a week in a Geneva shop is therefore not insured on that basis.
Source: Federal Office of Public Health, accident insurance, who is insured on a mandatory basis, verified on 13 August 2026.
No premium rate appears here: your insurer tells you yours.
The written employment contract and what it must contain
A written obligation exists, and it is time-bound. Where the employment relationship has been agreed for an indefinite period or for more than a month, the employer must inform the employee in writing, at the latest one month after the start of the employment relationship, on five points: the names of the parties, the start date, the employee's role, the salary and any salary supplements, and the weekly working hours. Any change to these items must likewise be communicated in writing, within a month of taking effect.
Source: Swiss Confederation, Code of Obligations (CO), RS 220, art. 330b, version in force on 1 January 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
That second part is almost always forgotten. A graphic designer in Lausanne moving from 60 to 80% in April must receive something in writing, not just an amended payslip.
The work permit and liability to withholding tax
Two checks come before the start date. The first concerns the document that allows the person to work in Switzerland, a subject beyond this checklist. The second concerns withholding tax, levied by the cantons: each publishes its own scale, and the Federal Tax Administration maintains the list of the competent cantonal tax authorities.
Source: Federal Tax Administration, withholding tax, verified on 13 August 2026.
Every month: what goes out, to whom, and when
Once the payroll run is finished, the table below sums up what goes out each month, to whom, at what rhythm, and what stays on file.
The payslip given to the employee
Payment of the salary comes with a document, and the Code of Obligations puts it plainly: a statement is given to the employee.
Source: Swiss Confederation, Code of Obligations (CO), RS 220, art. 323b para. 1, version in force on 1 January 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
The official documentation gives no list of mandatory items. The purpose settles it: your employee must be able to check what they earned and what was withheld.
Contribution instalments to the social insurance schemes
Social insurance is not paid on actual figures during the year. Compensation funds set provisional contributions, that is, instalments based on the estimated total of salaries, and you must inform your fund when that total changes significantly. The rhythm depends on your payroll: quarterly as long as the annual total of salaries does not exceed CHF 200,000, monthly above that. The final payment deadline falls on the 10th day following the end of the quarter or the month, which puts the first quarter's contributions at 10 April. One point to watch: where your instalments turn out to be lower than the final contributions, the invoice you receive is payable within 30 days exactly and not within a month, a deadline that cannot be extended, moved to the next working day if the last day falls on a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday.
Source: AVS/AI Information Centre, memento 2.01, Contributions to AVS, AI and APG, as at 1 January 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
Withholding and reporting withholding tax
For the employees concerned, you deduct the tax from the remuneration, then pass it on to the tax authority of the competent canton. No scale appears here, since they are cantonal and change over time. Check every month the cantonal attachment, the rate applied to the family situation, and that changes are taken into account in the right month.
Family allowances and the benefits to pass on
Family allowances are not decided at your end: it is the fund's decision that creates the entitlement, sets the amount and determines when it starts to run. The contribution that funds them is, on the other hand, payable by you, and its rate varies from one canton to another, from 1.025% to 2.75% of salary outside agriculture.
Source: Federal Social Insurance Office, Swiss social insurance, overview table of contribution rates and premiums, as at 1 January 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
The same mechanism applies to daily allowances received in place of an absent employee: the decision is filed with the payroll of the month concerned.
Every year: the salary declaration and the salary certificate
The start of the year brings together two appointments, on the same salaries but with different recipients.
The annual salary declaration to the compensation fund
After the year-end close, your final contributions are set on the basis of your salary declaration, which must reach your compensation fund at the latest on 30 January following the end of the contribution year. A delay exposes you to late-payment interest on any difference.
Source: AVS/AI Information Centre, memento 2.01, Contributions to AVS, AI and APG, as at 1 January 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
The adjustment takes one of two forms: a refund if your instalments exceeded the final contributions, an invoice otherwise. The detail of each declaration, recipient by recipient, is set out in our article on the mandatory salary declarations.
The salary certificate given to each employee
Employers certify the benefits provided to their employees by means of the corresponding salary certificate form. When a question arises on that document, the counterparty is neither your fund nor your insurer: it is the cantonal tax administration that answers general and technical questions. The Federal Tax Administration publishes a guide that applies from the 2026 tax period, released on 15 January 2026. An SME without payroll software is not stuck: the CSI electronic salary certificate, provided free of charge, makes it possible to produce an unlimited number of certificates and pension statements.
Source: Federal Tax Administration, salary certificate and pension statement, consulted on 13 August 2026.
Unified transmission through the Swissdec ELM standard
These filings can go out in one go. Many compensation funds can receive the declaration electronically, for example through the unified salary reporting procedure, PUCS, and the official memento points to swissdec.ch for this.
Source: AVS/AI Information Centre, memento 2.01, Contributions to AVS, AI and APG, as at 1 January 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
The ELM standard is the uniform salary reporting procedure established by Swissdec: companies report their salaries once to all recipients, and the standard also reports arrivals and departures to AVS during the year, along with changes relating to withholding tax.
Source: Swissdec Association, the ELM standard, consulted on 13 August 2026.
In the event of an audit: what you will be asked for
An employer audit is not a sanction, it is a check that your fund can carry out at your premises, on a timetable it alone sets. The principle that makes it possible is in the law: companies must withhold the employee's contribution from every salary, settle the contribution account periodically with their fund, and establish the data needed to keep the individual accounts.
Source: Swiss Confederation, Federal Act on Old-Age and Survivors' Insurance (LAVS), RS 831.10, art. 51 para. 1 and para. 3, as at 1 January 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
The federal circular sets two calendar markers. A newly created company can be audited at the latest four years after it was set up once its total salaries exceed CHF 150,000. And where elements suggest a reporting problem, the fund carries out that audit within five years at most.
Source: Federal Department of Home Affairs, OFAS, circular to compensation funds on employer audits (CCE), 318.107.08, version 7, as at 1 June 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
What you will be asked for, you already have: the records in the fourth column of the table, over the period announced, plus the contracts and amendments.
The first discrepancy looked for separates the accounts from the salaries declared. The determining salary includes, among other things, gratifications, loyalty or performance bonuses, long-service gifts and benefits assessable in money arising from employee participation plans.
Source: AVS/AI Information Centre, memento 2.01, Contributions to AVS, AI and APG, as at 1 January 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
An omitted contribution is not corrected only in the past: your future instalments rest on the estimated total of salaries, and any adjustment must be reported to your fund.
The checking exercise itself is the subject of a separate article: Payroll audit in Switzerland: why and how to run one (page being created).
How long to keep what
The law sets only one retention period, and it does not cover everything you keep.
Accounting records and payslips
The Code of Obligations sets ten years, running from the close of the financial year, for your books and the records that support them, as well as for the annual report and the audit report.
Source: Swiss Confederation, Code of Obligations (CO), RS 220, art. 958f, version in force on 1 January 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
Your payslips and your payroll journal support accounting entries, and follow the fate of the records they back up.
Personnel files and data protection
An employee's file is not handled like an accounting record. No specific period was found: the retention of personal data follows a principle of necessity, not a counter.
The three moments when compliance slips
The deadlines described above hold on their own in steady state. Three situations derail them.
The first moment is an employee arriving or leaving during the month. A single payroll run is concerned, but it touches all four of your counterparties at once: the pro rata, the pension affiliation, the accident cover and the withholding tax.
The second moment is a change of canton or of status. A sales representative moving from Fribourg to Geneva, a permit that changes type: each one alters the tax attachment without touching the employment contract, and that is exactly why it goes unnoticed.
The third moment is the departure of the person in charge of payroll, because the calendar is never fully written down in a system where every social insurance scheme has its own rhythm.
That calendar can be kept by someone other than you. The payroll management solutions from Numeriq Payroll cover exactly these deadlines: preparing the payslips, filing the declarations with each of the four counterparties, tracking the dates. You remain the employer, and the memory of the calendar no longer depends on one person.
The calculation errors of the payroll cycle are listed in our article on the most common payroll mistakes in Switzerland.
Frequently asked questions
What are an employer's obligations in Switzerland?
They sort themselves by counterparty: withholding at each payroll run, instalments and the annual declaration for the compensation fund; affiliation for the pension institution; cover for the accident insurer; withholding and reporting for the cantonal tax administration; the payslip and written information for your employee.
What are the employer's obligations regarding the payslip?
The Code of Obligations states the rule in one sentence: a statement is given to the employee when the salary is paid.
Source: Swiss Confederation, Code of Obligations (CO), RS 220, art. 323b para. 1, version in force on 1 January 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
What does an employer risk by not declaring a salary?
An undeclared salary does not disappear, since the law requires the employee's share to be deducted from any remuneration and accounted for at regular intervals.
Source: Swiss Confederation, Federal Act on Old-Age and Survivors' Insurance (LAVS), RS 831.10, art. 51 para. 1 and para. 3, as at 1 January 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
The only quantified effect described by the official documentation concerns late declaration, which triggers late-payment interest on any difference. For your own situation, your fund's decision is what counts.
Source: AVS/AI Information Centre, memento 2.01, Contributions to AVS, AI and APG, as at 1 January 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
Does an employer with a single employee have the same obligations?
Yes in essence, and that is what surprises company founders most. Two qualifications come from the contract and not from headcount: a fixed-term contract not exceeding three months does not open mandatory occupational pension provision, and, outside private households and the artistic and media sectors, contributions are not levied on a salary that does not exceed CHF 2,500 a year per employer where the employee does not require them to be paid.
Source: AVS/AI Information Centre, memento 6.06 on the obligation to join a pension institution and memento 2.04 on salaries of minor importance, as at 1 January 2025, verified on 13 August 2026.
How long must payroll documents be kept?
Ten years is the marker: the books and accounting records, as well as the annual report and the audit report, are kept for that period, which runs from the end of the financial year. Your payslips follow the fate of the records they support.
Source: Swiss Confederation, Code of Obligations (CO), RS 220, art. 958f, version in force on 1 January 2026, verified on 13 August 2026.
The personnel file follows a different logic, that of necessity, with no stated period.
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