Side Hustle Next to a Full-Time Job in Switzerland: What Is Allowed, What Is Not, and How to Earn Your First Franc

Note: This article covers Swiss law specifically - OR (Code of Obligations), AHV (old-age and survivors' insurance), and Swiss MwSt (VAT). The rules described apply to persons resident and employed in Switzerland. If you work cross-border or are resident in another country, consult a local tax advisor.

Running a side hustle alongside a full-time job in Switzerland is fundamentally legal. Three thresholds determine what you need to do before earning your first franc. Understanding all three puts you on solid legal ground and prevents unpleasant surprises at tax time.

  • Threshold 1 - Employment contract: Your contract and any applicable collective labour agreement (GAV) determine whether you must notify or obtain approval from your employer (OR Art. 321a, duty of loyalty).
  • Threshold 2 - AHV: From CHF 2'500 in side income per year, you must register with the AHV compensation fund as self-employed.
  • Threshold 3 - VAT: From CHF 100'000 in annual worldwide turnover, you become subject to VAT registration.
  • Threshold 0 - Platform: Starting on a platform with no monthly fixed costs means you carry zero financial risk before you earn your first franc.

Threshold Table: What Applies When?

Threshold Amount / Criterion What Happens Source
Check employment contract Always, before starting Notification or approval obligation depending on contract CO Art. 321a
AHV exemption < CHF 2'500 / year No AHV registration required (voluntary possible) ahv-iv.ch
AHV minimum contribution CHF 2'500 - CHF 10'100 / year Register as self-employed, minimum contribution CHF 530 / year ahv-iv.ch
AHV regular rate > CHF 10'100 / year Contributions 5.371% - 10% of income ahv-iv.ch
Tax declaration From the first franc Mandatory declaration regardless of amount Cantonal tax authority
VAT obligation >= CHF 100'000 turnover / year Mandatory registration and accounting Art. 10 MWSTG, estv.admin.ch
BVG threshold > CHF 22'680 / year (primarily self-employed) Separate BVG assessment required bsv.admin.ch
Commercial register >= CHF 100'000 turnover / year Registration obligation as sole proprietor CO Art. 931
CHF 0 fixed costs + AHV-exempt up to CHF 2'500 With bondigoo (CHF 0 platform fixed costs) and the AHV exemption below CHF 2'500 annual turnover, a full-time employee can test a knowledge business with zero financial obligation.

Most people starting a knowledge-based side hustle remain below CHF 2'500 per year for several years. In this range, administrative effort is minimal.

What Can Your Employer Determine About Your Side Hustle?

Your employer has a legitimate interest in knowing whether you are active outside work hours. Swiss employment law under OR Art. 321a obliges you as an employee to "faithfully maintain the legitimate interests of your employer" - including in your free time.

In practical terms: OR Art. 321a Para. 3 prohibits you from working for remuneration for third parties where doing so violates your duty of loyalty. This is the case when you directly compete with your employer, when you work in a niche segment that touches your employer's core business, or when your side activity impairs your work performance through exhaustion or distraction.

What can your employer require?

Your employer may require you to notify and obtain approval for a planned side activity. Many employment contracts and collective labour agreements (GAV) contain explicit approval obligations. Read your employment contract carefully before starting. If you find such a clause: notify your employer before you begin.

Can your employer simply refuse? Not arbitrarily. Refusal requires a substantive reason. Recognised grounds are direct competition with the employer, significant risk of reputational damage, or a realistic threat to your work performance. With part-time employment, employers have considerably less latitude, since you are deliberately not employed full-time.

What is permitted?

An online course on a topic unrelated to your employer's business is generally permitted. You are sharing knowledge you have developed in your own time, or teaching skills that pose no competitive risk. This applies to the vast majority of knowledge-based side hustles: languages, photography, personal finance, health, creative writing, programming - none of these touch most employers.

The key test: would you tell your employer what you are doing, and would their likely reaction be indifference or goodwill? If so, you are on safe ground. References on OR Art. 321a are available through Swiss employment law publications such as arbeitsrecht-aktuell.ch.

From What Amount Do You Need to Notify AHV of Your Side Income?

The AHV exemption threshold of CHF 2'500 per year is the most important figure for anyone starting a side hustle. As long as your total self-employed side income stays below CHF 2'500 per calendar year and you remain employed by a company, you may forgo an AHV notification. This is not a loophole but an explicit rule: AHV compensation funds treat side income below this threshold for already-employed persons as notification-free additional income. The basis is set out in AHV Fact Sheet 2.09.

What happens above CHF 2'500?

Once you exceed CHF 2'500 in side income in a year, you register with your responsible AHV compensation fund as self-employed. The minimum contribution in this range is CHF 530 per year, regardless of whether you earn CHF 2'600 or CHF 10'000. Above CHF 10'100 annual income, AHV contributions are calculated on a degressive scale between 5.371% and 10%.

For a detailed presentation of contribution rates, see AHV Fact Sheet 2.02 and contact your cantonal compensation fund directly.

When exactly must you act?

The right moment is not after you have already exceeded the threshold, but before it happens. As soon as you can foresee that your side income will exceed CHF 2'500 in the current year, contact the relevant AHV compensation fund. In practice this is usually the fund of your canton of residence or a trade association fund. Registration is straightforward: a short letter or form suffices; the fund will explain the exact process.

Double contributions - do you pay AHV twice?

No. As an employee, your employer already pays AHV contributions on your salary. Your self-employed side activity is subject to a separate contribution obligation, but there is no double billing: AHV contributions on side income are billed separately and constitute an independent obligation, not an increase to your existing contribution.

Read also: Issuing Invoices as a Coach in Switzerland

When Do You Become Subject to Swiss VAT?

VAT liability arises when your worldwide annual turnover exceeds CHF 100'000. This applies to all revenue you generate as a self-employed person, regardless of sources. The ESTV stipulates: anyone who is economically active in Switzerland and generates less than CHF 100'000 in annual turnover is exempt from VAT registration.

What does "worldwide turnover" mean?

If you sell online courses, all revenue from these courses counts, regardless of where your buyers are located. If you have 50 course participants from Germany, Switzerland and Austria and earn a total of CHF 95'000, you are still below the threshold. If you exceed it, registration becomes mandatory. Once registered with the ESTV, you charge VAT at current rates: the standard rate is 8.1%, the reduced rate 2.6%, and the special accommodation rate 3.8% (as of 2026).

Is voluntary registration worthwhile?

Theoretically yes, if you want to reclaim significant input VAT. In practice, this rarely makes sense for most knowledge side hustles generating less than CHF 50'000. Administrative costs typically exceed the tax benefit.

Tax declaration - what you must always declare

Regardless of AHV notification and VAT: you must declare your side income in your tax declaration every year, even if it amounts to just CHF 200. The tax office will learn of it at the latest when you register with AHV, since authorities share information. Failing to declare risks a tax reassessment with interest.

Read also: Billing Systems for Coaches: Payment Processing and Swiss Tax Practice

How Does AHV Distinguish Self-Employed from Employed Side Activity?

Whether your side activity is classified as self-employed or employed has concrete financial consequences. With employed work, your contracting party pays the employer contributions; with self-employed work, you bear the entire AHV contribution yourself.

AHV assesses self-employment against four criteria:

  1. Own account and own risk: You bear the economic risk yourself. If a course goes unsold, you absorb the loss without anyone stepping in.
  2. Entrepreneurial freedom: You set prices, schedules and offerings yourself. You are subject to no one's instructions.
  3. Own investment: You use your own infrastructure, your own software, your own resources - not the contracting party's assets.
  4. Multiple clients or own market presence: You offer your services on the market, not exclusively to a single employer.

Online courses and coaching: clearly self-employed

Anyone who publishes an online course on a platform like bondigoo, sets their own prices and appears independently on the market satisfies all four criteria for self-employment. The same applies to coaching sessions offered independently of your main employer. AHV treats such activities unambiguously as self-employed side activity.

BVG (occupational pension) with self-employed side activity

For your self-employed side activity, you are not obligatorily subject to BVG pension contributions if you are already connected to an occupational pension scheme (Pensionskasse) through your main employment. Your Pensionskasse at your main employer covers your occupational pension protection. BVG is federal law - cantonal variations in the mandatory affiliation rule do not exist. A separate BVG assessment only becomes relevant if your side income exceeds the BVG entry threshold of CHF 22'680 per year (as of 2026) and you qualify as primarily self-employed. Source: Federal Social Insurance Office

Read also: Building as a Coach in Switzerland: Two-Year Experience Report

How Do You Earn Your First Franc Without Legal Risk?

Your first franc from a knowledge side hustle materialises when you understand the three thresholds and choose the right tools. Here is the concrete process.

Step 1: Review your employment contract

Read through your employment contract and the applicable GAV (if any). Searching for terms like "Nebentätigkeit" (side activity), "Bewilligungspflicht" (approval obligation) or "Konkurrenzklausel" (non-compete clause) quickly reveals whether a notification obligation exists. If it does, write your employer a brief email: you are planning to occasionally share knowledge in a non-competing field online. In most cases you will receive no objections.

Step 2: Define your offering and start small

Define what you want to share. This might be a written course, a video series, a workbook, or a combination. On bondigoo you can build programmes with all six content types - video, text, document, quiz, assignment and presentation - without investing a franc upfront. There are no monthly base fees and no setup fees. You pay a transaction fee only when you sell something.

This is not a minor detail: anyone spending CHF 50 per month on a platform is operating at a loss from an accounting perspective until they generate CHF 600 per year. Without fixed costs, your side hustle is profitable from the first franc.

Step 3: Stay below CHF 2'500 or register in time

If you know you will stay below CHF 2'500 in the first year, you need do nothing except declare your income in your annual tax declaration. If you see that you will exceed the threshold, register with the AHV compensation fund before reaching it.

Step 4: Position your offering on the market

With bondigoo you can offer not only programmes but also live sessions and group webinars. This opens three revenue streams: asynchronous courses generating income around the clock, live sessions for personal coaching, and group sessions for scalable formats.

An integrated CRM on bondigoo helps you maintain an overview of your clients, manage course comments and coordinate enquiries. This is the infrastructure you need without purchasing separate tools.

Step 5: Plan for growth

Once you earn regularly, you have a solid basis for decision-making: should the side income remain a relaxed supplement below CHF 2'500, or should it grow? If it grows, you plan the AHV registration and any tax optimisations. This is a favourable position to be in, because you decide from a position of strength.

Read also: Passive Income with Knowledge: Models for Switzerland

Read also: Creating an Online Course: Step-by-Step Guide 2026

What You Can Take Away

A side hustle alongside a full-time job in Switzerland is legally unproblematic if you have three things in hand:

  1. Your employment contract is reviewed and you have obtained the necessary approval (or know that none is needed).
  2. You monitor your side income and register with AHV before exceeding CHF 2'500.
  3. You declare your income annually in your tax declaration.

The administrative effort in the early stages is minimal. The biggest hurdle in practice is not bureaucratic complexity but the first step: publishing your first offering. Anyone starting on a platform with no fixed costs takes no financial risk in doing so.

Read also: Online Course Platform Comparison 2026

Read also: Online Course Earnings in Switzerland: What Is Realistic?

Ready for your first earned franc?

Start your first programme on bondigoo - no fixed costs, transaction fee only

References

FAQ

Is a side hustle alongside a full-time job in Switzerland allowed?

Yes, a side hustle alongside full-time employment is fundamentally permitted in Switzerland. You must check your employment contract for approval obligations (CO Art. 321a) and must not directly compete with your employer. Knowledge offerings such as online courses or coaching in a non-competing area are unproblematic in most cases. On bondigoo you can start without fixed costs and carry no financial risk before earning your first franc.

From what amount must I report side income to AHV?

From CHF 2'500 in side income per year from self-employed activity, you must register with the AHV compensation fund as self-employed. Below this threshold, no notification is required as long as you are simultaneously employed by a company. The basis is set out in AHV Fact Sheet 2.09. Take the first AHV step before you are likely to exceed the threshold - not after.

Do I need my employer's consent to sell an online course?

That depends on your employment contract. If it contains an approval obligation for side activities, you must obtain consent. Your employer may only refuse if there is an objective reason - such as direct competition or reputational damage. An online course in a non-competing subject area meets with no objections from most employers. Start on bondigoo with your first programme and inform your employer informally by email if your contract requires it.

What happens if I do not declare side income in my tax declaration?

Undeclared side income constitutes tax evasion and leads to additional tax assessments with interest. The tax office will learn of your side income at the latest when you register with the AHV compensation fund, as authorities share information. Therefore declare every year - even small amounts - in your tax declaration. The administrative effort is modest; the risk of non-declaration is not.

From when must I charge VAT?

VAT liability begins when your worldwide annual turnover from all self-employed activities exceeds CHF 100'000. Below this you are exempt from VAT - registration is voluntary. The current standard VAT rate is 8.1% (as of 2026). Further information directly from the ESTV. On bondigoo with integrated billing you always maintain an overview of your annual turnover.

What is the difference between self-employed and employed side activity?

With self-employed side activity you bear the economic risk yourself, set your own prices and work on your own account - for example as a course provider on bondigoo. With employed side activity you are employed by a second employer; they pay the employer contributions. The difference is significant from a tax and social insurance perspective. Knowledge offerings online clearly fall into the self-employed category when you operate independently and set your own prices.