Loans for the self-employed

Being self-employed does not rule you out of a personal loan in Switzerland. The law sets the same credit check for you as for an employee: you must be able to repay without touching your Existenzminimum (minimum subsistence level), and the lender must assume you repay within 36 months. What changes is how you show your income. You have no salary statement, so the lender can ask for other documents that show what you earn. Each lender then decides whether it lends to the self-employed, and which documents it accepts. A personal loan is for private purposes; credit for your business is a different matter.

Who counts as self-employed

For social insurance, you are self-employed if you work under your own name and for your own account, organise your work freely and bear the economic risk yourself. The AHV compensation office (Ausgleichskasse) decides case by case, on the economic facts rather than on what your contract says. Signs it looks at include a company name of your own, your own investments and premises, invoices in your own name and several clients. If you work for a single client, you will normally be treated as an employee. If you employ other people, you count as self-employed too (ahv-iv.ch, leaflet 2.02).

As the owner of a sole proprietorship (Einzelunternehmen), you must be recognised as self-employed by the social insurance. You apply for this at the compensation office where the business has its seat (KMU portal).

If you run your business as a company limited by shares (AG) or a limited liability company (GmbH), it is different. Owners who manage the company count as its employees and are insured as such (KMU portal). You then draw a salary from your own company. Ask a lender how it treats that salary before you apply.

What the law says

A personal loan is a private credit. The Consumer Credit Act (Konsumkreditgesetz, KKG) protects a person who borrows for a purpose that is not part of their professional or business activity (KKG, Art. 3). Its rules, from the credit check to the right to withdraw, cover consumer credits from CHF 500 to CHF 80’000 (KKG, Art. 7). Credit for your business falls outside that definition.

The same credit check as everyone. You must be able to repay without using the part of your income that can’t be seized in debt collection. The lender works this out with your canton’s guidelines for the Existenzminimum, and it must count your actual rent, your taxes according to the withholding tax table and the credits already recorded at the IKO, the information office for consumer credit. It must assume the loan is repaid within 36 months, even if your term is longer (KKG, Art. 28). The guide how much can I borrow explains each step.

Other documents instead of a salary statement. A lender can ask you for an extract from the debt collection register and a salary statement. If you are not in employment, it can ask for other documents that show your income (KKG, Art. 31). It may rely on the figures you give it, unless they are plainly wrong or contradict the IKO. If it has doubts, it must check them against official or private documents (KKG, Art. 31).

The KKG does not say how a variable income is measured, or how long you must have worked for yourself. Each lender sets its own rule. Ask before you apply.

Documents that show a self-employed income

Which of these a lender asks for, and for how many years, is its own rule.

What to count in your budget

As a self-employed person, some costs that an employer covers for employees are yours. Count them before you work out a monthly payment.

• AHV, IV and EO contributions. You pay them yourself, at the full rate of 10.0 % of your income from CHF 60’500 a year, and at lower rates below that. Contributions on account are due every quarter (ahv-iv.ch, leaflet 2.02).
• Cover you don’t have by law. As a self-employed person, you are not insured against unemployment, and neither accident insurance nor occupational pension provision is compulsory for you (ahv-iv.ch, leaflet 2.02). Whatever cover you take out yourself is a monthly cost.
• Your taxes. The cantonal tax authorities assess your taxes each year from your return, and you normally pay them in instalments (ch.ch).
• Business debts. As the owner of a sole proprietorship, you are liable for the business’s debts with your private assets, without limit (KMU portal). They weigh on the same budget as a private loan.

If your income varies, base the monthly payment on a weaker year, not your best one. Then try amounts and terms in the loan calculator until the payment fits with room to spare.

Before you apply

1. Gather the documents above, for the years the lender asks for.
2. Check your own records. Order your debt collection extract, and your free IKO and ZEK extracts. See ZEK and IKO explained and ordering a debt collection extract.
3. Ask the lender three questions: does it lend to the self-employed, how long must you have been self-employed, and which documents does it accept.
4. Keep the loan private. Borrow for a private purpose. If you need money for the business, ask about business credit instead.

If you are not Swiss, the lender will also look at your residence permit. See loans with a residence permit. For every other requirement, see loan requirements.

Swizeo and the self-employed

Swizeo’s personal loan is for private individuals.

In step 4 of the application, you choose «Self-employed» as your type of work. We ask because different income types are checked differently. A person on our credit team decides on every application.

Next step

Check our requirements, with the reason for each one, on the personal loan page before you apply. If one of them rules you out, better to know now.