Old age and survivors' insurance (AVS)

If you are an employer, you are responsible for the payment of social contributions in respect of all your employees as from January 1st of the year following their 17th birthday, and in respect of any self-employed persons working for you who have not been declared to a social security institution. The obligation terminates when your employees reach retirement age and cease all gainful employment. For administrative purposes, AVS/AI/APG contributions are grouped together at an overall rate of 10.60%, of which half (5.30%) is contributed by the employee and half by you. Within this overall rate, AVS is 8.7%, AI is 1.4%, and APG is 0.50%. In addition, there is a contribution to the Compensation Fund’s administrative costs (between 0.02% and 0.175% of the payroll), calculated on the basis of reported annual salaries.

AVS pensions are not paid out automatically; they must be requested by the person entitled to a retirement pension. It is important to remind your employees in good time, especially since the flexible retirement system allows them to claim a pension one to two years early, or to postpone it by one to five years. When employees reach retirement age, preferably six months prior to their actual entitlement, you should give them a pension claim form. The statutory retirement age is 64 for women and 65 for men. The level of pension due depends on how much they contributed and for how long, with a statutory maximum per person or per couple. If in some years no contributions were paid in, the pension is reduced proportionately.

As a result of the AVS 21 Reform, the reference age women will be gradually increased by three months each year from 1 January 2025 :

In 2028, the reference age of 65 will be identical for men and women.

In order to pay your contributions, you must first register with the CVCI and our Social Compensation Funds. Once affiliated, your provisional contributions will be fixed on the basis of your annual payroll estimate. We should be informed of any major changes during the course of the year (+/- 25%). The provisional contributions are payable on a quarterly basis if the payroll is under CHF 200,000, and monthly if it is greater. In the case of late receipt of your statement of account or late payment, a default interest of 5% will be charged. At the end of the year, you will be sent a statement of account which will set real salary payments for the year under consideration against the provisional contributions. For the difference you will either be invoiced, or a credit note will be deducted from your next contribution payment. As an employer, you are responsible for the payment of AVS contributions in respect of all your employees, and you are subject to periodic checks.