Business and Enterprise Register

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Brief Profile

The Business and Enterprise Register (BER) contains all enterprises and business in private and public law which are domiciled and exercise an economic activity in Switzerland. The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) uses the BER as an address register for statistical surveys on businesses and workplaces. Other offices of the federal administration and numerous cantons also use the BER for statistical or administrative purposes.

The computer-assisted database has links to administrative and statistical sources and is continuously updated. Every year over 400'000 updates are made.

Purpose

• Approximately 20 different FSO surveys are carried out using the data from the BER as reference basis
• Every year between 250 and 300 data sets with business information are provided for commercial purposes or for scientific research (polling institutes, universities)
• The regional job centres (RAV) use information from the BER which is integrated into their information system "placement services and labour market statistics" (AVAM)
• The Federal Tax Administration uses data from the BER for VAT and stamp duty purposes

Register content

The BER contains the following information:

• Name and address of the enterprise or business
• Municipality number
• BER number: a non-significant 8-digit registration number
• UID: enterprise identification number
  
• Number of employees by sex and working hours
• Type of economic activity (NOGA)
• Legal form
• Date of entry or cancellation in trade register
• Date of notification of opening or closing of enterprise or business
• Capital stock of limited company
• Turnover
• For agricultural enterprises: the number of large cattle units, information on land use, profession and age of head of enterprise
• For state-owned forestry enterprises: forest area