Founding a company / Question 7
A company’s UID: what it is, and where to find it.
The UID is the business identification number: CHE followed by eight digits and a check digit, written CHE-123.456.789. The Federal Statistical Office assigns one, free of charge, to every company in the commercial register, and it never changes, not even when the company is renamed. Anyone can look up a company’s UID for free in the UID register or in Zefix.
Antevo Companies · Finding a company is always free · With an Antevo account
01 / The number
CHE, eight digits and a check digit.
The UID consists of the prefix CHE, an eight-digit number assigned at random and a check digit. (UIDV Art. 5) The number carries no meaning, never changes and is assigned only once. (UIDG Arts. 3(1)(a) and 4(2)) The check digit catches a mistyped number: change any single digit and the check fails.
A suffix may follow: HR (RC in French and Italian) while the company is entered in the commercial register, MWST (TVA, IVA) while it is registered for VAT. (UIDG Art. 3(1)(b); UIDV Art. 8) A VAT invoice must, as a rule, give the number under which the supplier is entered in the register of taxable persons. (MWSTG Art. 26(2)(a)) Beyond such special rules, the law leaves it to companies whether to use their UID in their dealings with each other. (UIDG Art. 5(3))
Find a company, free02 / Where to find it
Free, for any company.
The Federal Statistical Office makes the core data of the UID register public online, one company at a time: the UID, the name and address, and the status in the commercial register and in the VAT register. (UIDG Arts. 6(2)(a) and 11(1))
Zefix, the Central Business Name Index, finds a company by name or by UID and shows its UID next to its legal form, seat and status, with a link to the cantonal register’s excerpt. (Zefix)
Find a company, free03 / After a rename or a deletion
Same number, whatever the name.
A rename does not change the UID: the company stays the same legal entity under the same number. (HRegV Art. 116(2)) That makes the UID a safer key to a counterparty than its name: search the SHAB by UID and you find its notices from September 2018 on, under every name it has carried in that time; older ones are in the SHAB’s archive.
A deleted company’s UID is never given to another company; it comes back only if the same company is entered again. (HRegV Art. 116(3))
Find a company, free04 / In Antevo
One number, one file.
In Antevo Companies you can find a Swiss company by name or UID for free. Its file brings together what the commercial register, the SHAB and the sanctions lists hold for that UID, each fact dated and sourced, and a watch tells you when any of it changes.
Find a company, freeSources
Where this comes from.
The counts behind the figures and the primary sources for every legal point. Intelligence, not advice: nothing here is legal advice, and a trademark attorney confirms whether a name is free and how to protect it.