In many cantons, sex work begins with a form: notification, registration, approval. In the canton of Schaffhausen, it’s different. In response to the minor inquiry 2020/27 submitted by cantonal councillor Patrick Portmann, the cantonal government stated in its resolution of November 24, 2020, that in the canton – unlike, for example, in Geneva – there is no registration requirement for sex workers. The canton therefore does not even have complete statistics; reliable figures exist essentially only for those EU citizens who are recorded in the erotic industry through the notification procedure.
This quickly becomes a misunderstanding: where there is no register, there is nothing to do. The opposite is true. The obligations that actually matter for sex workers in Schaffhausen do not lie with a morals police or prostitution authority, but with two very straightforward bodies: the compensation fund (AHV) and the tax administration. Both will not contact you if you don’t contact them – but both can calculate retroactively.
This article guides you through the financial side: who is considered self-employed, what does AHV cost in 2026, how are tax declarations and contribution notices connected, when does VAT apply, what applies to newcomers – and where self-employment leaves gaps that no one closes automatically.
What Schaffhausen does not regulate – and what applies nonetheless
The canton has deliberately not enacted its own prostitution law. Where work is permitted is therefore decided mainly by municipal building and zoning law, and who is responsible in individual cases is a matter of the chain of authorities – this is its own topic and is described in detail in our article on who in the canton really decides on sex work.
For social insurance and taxes, however, the canton’s silence changes nothing. AVS, IV, EO, income tax, and VAT are federal law, only administered at cantonal and municipal level. Sex work in Switzerland is a legal occupational activity, and legal occupational activity is subject to contributions and taxes – regardless of whether a canton has industry oversight or not.
The practical difference is merely: in cantons with prostitution laws, you learn your obligations when you register. In Schaffhausen, you learn them when you search for them yourself – or when an inspection, tax investigation, or permit application brings them to light.
The first decision: self-employed or employed?
Everything else depends on this classification, and it is not a matter of self-designation. Whether an activity is self-employed or employed is determined by the AVS compensation fund based on actual circumstances: are you bound by instructions? Do you bear your own entrepreneurial risk? Do you determine working hours, prices, and clientele yourself? Are you economically dependent on a single business? How a contract is titled plays no role.
This is not a marginal issue in the erotic industry. Businesses like to label employees as „self-employed“ because this eliminates employer obligations – contribution accounting, employer share of social insurance, and possibly source tax. From a foreigner law perspective, in turn, persons who work in an establishment under its organization are often considered employed. Both cannot be true simultaneously, and whoever doesn’t clarify this difference risks back payments.
Other cantons have created tools for this: Bern, for example, has its own source tax information sheet for the prostitution industry (Q11, valid from 2026) and a model contract for sex workers in establishments. Schaffhausen has nothing comparable. For this reason, it is all the more important to actively clarify your status rather than assume it. The SVA Schaffhausen issues a confirmation of self-employed status – a document that will concretely help you later in dealings with the migration office, operators, or landlords.
Step 1: Registration with SVA Schaffhausen
Responsible is the SVA Schaffhausen, Oberstadt 9, 8200 Schaffhausen, telephone 052 632 61 11 (svash.ch). For registering a self-employed activity, there is a separate registration form for self-employed persons that can be filled out online or submitted as a PDF. Via the AHVeasy portal, you can subsequently adjust advance contributions, apply for family allowances, and order status confirmations.
The fund wants to see proof that you actually work on your own account. Useful are: your own advertisements and marketing, a rental agreement for work premises or an agreement on room rental, receipts for investments and work materials, evidence of multiple customer relationships. Whoever works exclusively in one establishment, at its prices and times, will hardly be able to provide this evidence – then employment is the more honest and often also the more economical option, because the employer pays half the contributions.
What contributions cost in 2026
Self-employed persons pay AVS, IV, and EO entirely themselves. The rates are unchanged in 2026 compared to 2025:
- 10.0 percent of net occupational income from an income of CHF 60,500 per year;
- a degressive scale of 5.371 to 10.0 percent for income between CHF 10,100 and CHF 60,500;
- a minimum contribution of CHF 530 per year if income falls below that.
Add to this an administrative cost contribution from the fund; SVA Schaffhausen will state the current rate. At a net income of CHF 70,000, that is roughly CHF 7,000 per year, at CHF 20,000 significantly less than 10 percent – but never less than the minimum contribution. What matters is the assessment basis: what counts is the profit, that is, revenue minus business-related expenses, not what passes through your hands in cash.
Advance contributions and the trap of default interest
The compensation fund initially charges advance contributions based on your income estimate. Final accounting occurs only when the tax return arrives, that is, the legally finalized income from federal direct taxation. Then comes a notice – credit or additional payment.
Here lies the most expensive beginner’s mistake: if paid advance contributions are at least 25 percent below what is actually owed, default interest of 5 percent per year is charged on the difference. Whoever underestimates their first good year pays twice. The estimate can be corrected upward at any time during the year via AHVeasy – free and without justification.
A useful rule of thumb: set aside monthly a fixed portion of net income in a separate account – AVS, taxes, and possibly VAT combined quickly land in the range of 25 to 35 percent depending on municipality and income.
Step 2: The tax return is the foundation of everything
Because the AVS notice is based on the tax return, the tax declaration is not a separate process from social insurance but its foundation. Whoever declares nothing pays no contributions – and thus also does not accrue pension entitlements. Contribution gaps hurt twenty years later and can only be made up to a limited extent.
Record what happens anyway
Double-entry bookkeeping is not needed for small operations, but a traceable record is. In practice, this means: record income continuously (date, amount), document expenses, clearly separate private withdrawals and deposits. Business-related typically includes room or salon rental, advertisements and platform costs, work materials, laundry and cleaning, travel costs to work, and telephone and internet shares. What is also used privately is apportioned accordingly. How high the share may be is ultimately decided by the assessment – which is why a brief advance clarification is worthwhile more than a creative estimate.For cash-intensive activities, tax authorities are experienced in looking more closely and require an overview of assets and liabilities, income and expenses, and private withdrawals. Anyone who keeps this overview anyway has already completed the unpleasant part.
Deadlines and Municipality in Schaffhausen
Responsible is the Tax Administration of the Canton of Schaffhausen, J. J. Wepfer-Strasse 6, 8200 Schaffhausen. The deadline for the tax return can be extended via the canton’s eFristerstreckung (efristerstreckung.sh.ch) – if requested in time, currently free of charge and at most until the end of November; beyond that only in exceptional cases and upon request.
How much ultimately has to be paid depends heavily on the residential municipality: The canton has 26 municipalities whose tax rates roughly range between around 75 and 110 percent; the city of Schaffhausen is at 98 percent and has requested a reduction of 3 percent for the 2026 budget. The rate decided by the respective municipality is always binding. Taxation takes place at the tax domicile – anyone who maintains a permanent workplace with business establishment characteristics in another municipality or canton should clarify the allocation in advance with the tax administration. Where such a workplace is permitted at all is determined by the building and zoning regulations; we have broken down the differences between the municipalities in the overview of zones and municipal rules in the canton.
Value Added Tax: When It Becomes an Issue
VAT liability begins as soon as annual turnover from taxable services exceeds CHF 100,000. Registration with the Federal Tax Administration (ESTV) must be made without being asked within 30 days. The standard rate is 8.1 percent. For smaller operations, the flat-rate VAT method with simplified billing exists; it is available to businesses with a turnover of around CHF 5.024 million and a tax liability of up to CHF 108,000.
Services exempt from tax – such as medical treatments or education – are exhaustively listed in the law; erotic services are not among them. Which flat-rate VAT applies specifically, you clarify directly with the ESTV; this is information you have provided to you in writing.
If You Come from Abroad
For nationals from EU/EFTA: Up to 90 working days per calendar year, the notification procedure is sufficient, which must be registered online at the latest eight days before work begins. Only beyond that does a residence permit (L or B) become necessary. Responsible are the Migration Office of the Canton of Schaffhausen and the Cantonal Employment Office.
If you register as self-employed, you must demonstrate an active and subsistence-securing self-employment – among other things, confirmation of AVS affiliation or the A1 form, information about your activity, and proof that your livelihood is secured. The authority can request further documents at any time. Upon taking up residence, registration with the population control office of your residential municipality must be done within 14 days.
Tax-wise, the two worlds must be separated: Source tax applies to dependent employment; the rates apply from 1 January 2026; from a gross annual salary of CHF 120,000, subsequent ordinary taxation follows. Anyone who works self-employed is normally subject to ordinary taxation. Because the distinction in the erotic industry – see above – is frequently disputed, clarification with the cantonal tax administration is worthwhile for short stays, rather than being surprised at year-end.
What Self-Employment Does Not Cover
Self-employment in Switzerland also means a significantly thinner safety net. These points are not formalities; they decide about existence if something happens:
- Accident: Self-employed persons are not automatically insured under the Accident Insurance Act (UVG). Healing costs are covered by mandatory health insurance; loss of earnings is not covered by anyone. Voluntary UVG insurance is possible.
- Illness: Sick leave pay is voluntary. Without a policy, several weeks of illness-related absence means zero income.
- Unemployment: Self-employed persons are not insured in unemployment insurance. Period.
- Retirement: Without mandatory occupational pension insurance, pillar 3a remains the central instrument. In 2026, self-employed persons without a pension scheme can contribute 20 percent of net earned income, maximum CHF 36,288 (with pension scheme: CHF 7,258) – fully deductible from taxable income. A voluntary BVG affiliation is also possible.
- Maternity: The allowance is also available to self-employed persons: 14 weeks or 98 days, 80 percent of previous earned income, maximum CHF 220 per day. The requirement is that contributions have been paid – anyone who has never filed returns has no entitlement here either.
- Family allowances: In the Canton of Schaffhausen, they amount to CHF 230 per month and child (child allowance) or CHF 290 (training allowance). A minimum earned income of CHF 7,560 per year is required; the canton does not know birth and adoption allowances. Applications are made via the SVA.
- Premium reduction: Also runs through SVA Schaffhausen and is time-bound – the current deadlines and income limits are published annually by the SVA.
This list explains why the mere minimum contribution, while formally correct, is rarely a good strategy: It keeps the AVS record uninterrupted but replaces neither retirement income nor insurance coverage.
Where to Get Advice in Schaffhausen
The canton forgoes its own supervision but finances prevention: With a resolution of 10 June 2025, the government council supports outreach prevention work for sex workers through a service agreement with the Association for Youth Issues, Prevention and Addiction Support (VJPS) with CHF 20,000 annually. The work is carried out by specialists from Perspektive Thurgau, who regularly visit sex workers at their workplace – in salons, contact bars, or private residences – and provide advice there on health, social, and legal matters.
Contact: VJPS, Health Promotion, Prevention and Addiction Counselling Department, Webergasse 2/4, 8200 Schaffhausen, Phone 052 633 60 10, [email protected], Monday to Friday 08:30–12:00 and 14:00–17:00. The outreach social work is available at Hochstrasse 34 (052 624 50 80).
In parallel, cantonal authorities control according to the Black Labour Act – in the sex trade typically jointly with the police. Permits and identification documents are checked; the goal is exploitation, human trafficking, and forced prostitution. Sanctions can follow in social security, foreigner, and tax law. For correctly registered self-employed persons, such a check is above all: quickly done. That the market in the canton is certainly visible is already shown by a look at the offer between Schaffhausen and Neuhausen – the less convincing is the argument that this is a niche that no one captures.
Five Misconceptions That Get Expensive
- „No registration, no obligations.“ Freedom from registration concerns industry supervision, not AVS and taxes.
- „The salon settles that for me.“ Only if you are employed there – and then it must be on the payslip. Room rent is not contribution settlement.
- „I’m only here for a couple of weeks.“ The notification procedure regulates the stay, not contribution and tax obligations.
- „I prefer to estimate my income conservatively.“ From 25 percent difference, that costs 5 percent default interest on the catch-up payment.
- „I’ll register something later.“ Contribution years arise in the current year. What was never declared is missing later for pensions, maternity benefits, and disability insurance.
Conclusion
Schaffhausen does not require sex workers to register – and that’s precisely what makes self-organization more demanding than in cantons with prostitution laws. There’s no office to explain to you during registration what else is missing. The two steps that really matter are straightforward: registration with SVA Schaffhausen with clarified status, and a tax return based on proper records. Everything else – VAT, pillar 3a, daily allowance insurance, family allowances – follows from that.
This article summarizes the status as of 2026 and does not replace legal or tax advice. The SVA Schaffhausen provides binding information on contributions and allowances, the cantonal tax administration for income tax and withholding tax, the ESTV for VAT, and the Migration Office and Cantonal Employment Office for registration procedures and permits. If you’re unsure, request the information in writing – it costs nothing and is, in case of doubt, the best document you can have.