One in ten 'company burial' moves went to Herisau, until the new law took effect

Neuchâtel, 26 September 2026 – Between 2020 and 2024, almost one in ten Swiss companies that changed canton while replacing their name, their purpose and their officers on the same day moved to Herisau, in a canton that holds 0.75% of Swiss companies. These are the four signs of 'organised company burial' listed by the Federal Council in 2019. Since the law against bankruptcy abuse took effect on 1 January 2025, such moves into Herisau have fallen from 94 a year to 20, and to 2 so far in 2026. That is the finding of the first analysis of all 76,761 seat transfers between cantons published in the SOGC since 2016.

• Herisau: 34.6% of the companies that moved there were in liquidation, bankrupt or deleted within three years, against 20.0% for all companies that changed canton. Only 9.3% of their new officers lived in the canton (57.6% for all moves); 16.4% lived abroad.
• Across Switzerland, moves with all four signs fell by a fifth in 2025, from 1,065 to 851, while moves between cantons as a whole reached 8,042, the most since 2016. No other commune took Herisau's place.
• Tax does not move companies on balance: the seven cantons taxing profits at under 13% gained 11,353 companies from higher-tax cantons and lost 11,448 to them. For every 100 companies moving from Zurich to Zug, 93 moved from Zug to Zurich.
• Tax shows up as companies run from elsewhere: 59% of Zug's active companies have no registered officer living in Zug, against 18.8% nationally; 7,081 Zug companies are run mainly from the canton of Zurich.

«The register tells two stories here. One is enforcement: a pattern the Federal Council described in 2019 was concentrated in one town, and it faded when the new law arrived. The other is a myth: companies do not flock to low-tax cantons, their addresses do. For a buyer, that means the registered seat says little about where a business is actually run, and a past move with a new name and new officers is worth a question in due diligence.»

Background

The study names no company and no person. A move with all four changes is a pattern, not proof of abuse: a shell bought for a fresh start or a group restructuring looks the same in the register. The data shows that the drop at Herisau coincided with the new law (Art. 684a CO, Art. 65a Commercial Register Ordinance), not that the law caused it. Tax rates: KPMG, Clarity on Swiss Taxes 2026.