The association/ Which purpose is allowed? Who is liable for what? Where can I find examples of bylaws?
The association is regulated in Art. 60 of the Swiss Civil Code. An association is an union of people and/or societies aiming to achieve a common, noneconomic goal. This means that e.g. the association goal “to generate financial gains for its members” is not allowed. Basically allowed are convivial, political, scientifical and charitable purposes. However, an association is also allowed to run a socalled “commercially conducted business”, but only if this is a means to achieve its purpose. As we already explained, this purpose has to be a noneconomic one.
Here are some examples to illustrate the situation:
- An association with the purpose of animal protection is allowed to run a vegetarian restaurant and to finance its campains with the restaurant’s profit.
- A sports club may run a bar at the village fete to supplement its treasury.
- An association which aims to support blind people may offer courses for guide dogs for a fee.
- A Friends of Spain association may run a clubhouse with restaurant as a meeting point for its members.
- Martin, Melanie and Matt want to establish an association in order to conduct stock market transactions trough it, thus earning some extra money. This is not allowed.
- The three abovementioned people are not allowed to use the association to jointly run a small business either.
To put it simply, one may explain it as follows: If the founders of an association aim at using the association’s revenues to earn their living wholly or partly, this is not allowed.
If the association runs a commercially conducted business, it subject to Commercial Registry inscription. This also means that the association has to follow the rules of commercial bookkeeping.
Solely the association’s funds are liable for the association’s liabilities. This applies even if no membership fees have been set (although this was different before the law amendment of 2005. This still leads to confusion sometimes).
In order to establish an association, it is sufficient to call in an inaugural meeting, where the general meeting has to accept bylaws which fulfill the minimal regulatory requirements. The arrangement of bylaws is very flexible in Switzerland. It is possible to download sample association bylaws in french, italian and german.
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