Self-employed or employed? Why your cleaner is usually not self-employed
"She's self-employed, she sends me an invoice" - that's the most common misconception in Swiss households. In almost all cases your cleaner is legally your employee, no matter what the paperwork says. The test below shows where you stand - and when she really is self-employed, as an exception.
Cleaning in a private household is almost always an employment relationship - you are the employer and must register. An invoice or a business licence changes nothing. Your cleaner is genuinely self-employed only if she runs her own cleaning company with several clients, her own staff and her own risk. The AVS compensation office decides bindingly.
- What matters are the actual circumstances, not the contract or the invoice.
- Four criteria: subordination, integration, no risk, duty to work in person.
- The status is decided by the compensation office - not by you and not by your cleaner.
This applies when
You are wondering whether you have to employ your cleaner or whether she can work on an invoice as a self-employed person.
Why your cleaner is almost always an employee
The AVS compensation offices and the Federal Supreme Court do not examine what the contract says, but how the work is actually carried out. They use four criteria for this - and in a private household almost all four are almost always met:
Subordination
You decide when the cleaning is done, which rooms and how. Whoever follows instructions is an employee.
Organisational integration
The work is done in your home, with your equipment and cleaning products - she is integrated into your household.
No entrepreneurial risk
She invests nothing, bears no loss risk and has no infrastructure of her own. The only risk anyone bears is her own loss of wages.
Duty to work in person
You expect that SHE specifically comes and does not simply send a replacement. Self-employed people can arrange to be replaced.
If these criteria are met, an employment relationship exists - without exception (Art. 319 CO).
Legal basis
«By the individual employment contract, the employee undertakes to perform work in the service of the employer for a fixed or indefinite period.»
Art. 319 para. 1 CO
Take the test
Six questions about your specific situation. At the end you will see whether your cleaner counts as employed - and what that means for you.
Is your cleaner really self-employed?
Answer 6 questions. The test shows whether your cleaner counts as an employee in law - and when she is, exceptionally, genuinely self-employed.
Does your cleaner work regularly and mainly only for your household?
Do you decide when, where and how the cleaning is done?
Do you provide the cleaning products and equipment?
Do you expect her to come in person rather than just sending someone else?
Does she have no company, no employees and bear no financial loss risk?
Does she work without her own cleaning business that also serves other clients?
The rare exception: when she really is self-employed
It does exist, genuine self-employment - but it is the exception. Truly self-employed is only someone who acts like a business and bears a real entrepreneurial risk. A typical example: a registered cleaning company that sends you an employee. Then you are a customer, not an employer.
What does NOT indicate self-employment
- •An invoice instead of a payslip
- •A business licence or a sole proprietorship on its own
- •Work for several households (each is its own employer)
- •An oral or written agreement that she is "self-employed"
Features of genuine self-employment
- •Own company entered in the commercial register
- •Several clients, no relationship of dependency on a single one
- •Own staff, own equipment and materials
- •Bears the entrepreneurial risk (investments, risk of loss)
- •Recognised by the AVS as self-employed
Who decides - and why your invoice counts for nothing
The social-insurance status is decided solely by the AVS compensation office - not by you, not by your cleaner and not by any contract. It examines the real circumstances. An issued invoice or a business licence is no proof of self-employment.
Nor does "but she works for several families" help: each household counts as its own employer, and the AVS obligation applies per employer from the first franc. (The CHF 750 threshold applies only to pocket-money jobs of young people up to 25.)
In BGE 122 V 169 the Federal Supreme Court made it clear: what counts for the status are the actual economic circumstances, not the label chosen by the parties. Whoever works subject to instructions and without their own entrepreneurial risk is a dependent worker - no matter what the paperwork says.
What if you get it wrong?
If you wrongly treat an employee as self-employed, you bear the full risk: in an audit the compensation office reclaims the contributions for up to 5 years, plus default interest and a possible fine. And in the event of an accident without UVG insurance, you are personally liable.
Sources & official information
- 1CO Art. 319 - Definition of the employment contract - www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/27/317_321_377/de
- 2AVS guidelines - distinction self-employed / dependent - www.ahv-iv.ch/de/
- 3BSV - Contribution status (self-employed or dependent) - www.bsv.admin.ch/bsv/de/home/sozialversicherungen/ahv.html
- 4SECO - Employment law - www.seco.admin.ch/seco/de/home/Arbeit/Personenfreizugigkeit_Arbeitsbeziehungen/Arbeitsrecht.html
When in doubt, register correctly
If your cleaner is employed - and that is almost always the case - Clino handles the AVS registration, UVG, FAK and the payroll for CHF 19.90 a month. Safe, correct and without paperwork.
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