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Hiring a cleaner at home: not complicated (if you follow the procedure)

Many families in Lugano and Canton Ticino want to directly hire someone they trust for home cleaning, but stop in front of the imagined paperwork. The reality is different: for private domestic work, AVS provides a simplified procedure that makes everything doable in thirty minutes of setup. Once you understand the procedure, "private employer of domestic work" is a streamlined administrative category, designed exactly for those who don't want to open a VAT number or a company just to hire who comes to clean.

The simplified AVS procedure in four steps

The first step is registration: go to the AVS compensation fund's website for your canton (for Ticino, the cantonal fund or IAS) and fill in the "private employer — domestic work" form. Your data (name, address, ANUMOG code), the employee's data (name, AVS, address), the start date of the relationship, the agreed gross hourly or monthly salary, and the estimated monthly hours. You'll receive registration confirmation and a reference number in minutes, and the whole operation takes about fifteen minutes online.

The second step is the written contract, which isn't legally mandatory for minor hours but strongly recommended. The typical model includes the contract parties, the duties (cleaning, optional ironing, small household tasks), the working hours (e.g. 8 hours per week split into two shifts), the gross hourly salary in line with the Ticino Cleaning CCL (CHF 18.50/h level I, CHF 19.00/h level II, CHF 20.00/h CFP, CHF 21.20/h AFC), the 13th-month salary (mandatory if you apply the CCNL as reference), holidays (4 weeks standard), the probation period (1–3 months) and the notice period (1 month at month-end standard). Free downloadable templates are available on the AVS site or on Allpura.

The third step is Suva, mandatory for any paid employment relationship. Separate registration on the Suva site under "domestic work", with cost of 0.5–1.5% of gross salary depending on the fund. It covers occupational accidents during work at your home, non-occupational accidents if the weekly salary exceeds the threshold of around eight hours, and salary continuation in case of accident up to 80% coverage.

The fourth step is the possible LPP (second pillar), which becomes mandatory only if the annual salary exceeds the entry threshold of CHF 22,050 (2025–2026, indexed). Below this threshold — about 10–12 hours per week at CHF 18.50/h or 9–10 hours at CHF 21.20/h — LPP isn't mandatory and the procedure stays leaner. Above threshold, registration happens at a pension fund (for small relationships often the LPP Joint Institute Foundation), with costs of 7–12% paid by the employer and the same by the employee.

Total contributions — practical examples

To give a concrete sense of costs, three typical cases. Case A — 8 hours per week at CHF 18.50/h gross (CCL level I) — makes an annual salary of CHF 7,696 (under the LPP threshold), with employer contributions around 9% (AVS+AI+IPG at 5.275% for CHF 406, AD at 1.1% for CHF 85, Suva at 1.5% for CHF 115, Family Allowance at 1% for CHF 77, total around CHF 685 per year) plus the 13th-month salary of CHF 641, for a total annual cost of about CHF 9,000.

Case B — 12 hours per week at CHF 19.00/h (CCL level II) — makes an annual salary of CHF 11,856 (still under the LPP threshold), with employer contributions around 9% for about CHF 1,070, 13th-month of CHF 988, and total annual cost of about CHF 13,900.

Case C — 20 hours per week at CHF 21.20/h (CCL AFC) — makes an annual salary of CHF 22,048, exactly at the LPP threshold limit, with employer contributions without LPP around CHF 1,990 (9%), 13th-month of CHF 1,837, and total annual cost of about CHF 25,900 (CHF 27,500 with LPP active).

How it differs from a cleaning company

Common mistakes by private employers

When to switch to a cleaning company

Some specific cases make a cleaning company more convenient or better suited than the private employer. For work below four hours per week the private-employer setup isn't proportionally worth it; for allergies or specific constraints trained staff and certified products are needed that the private can't guarantee alone; for families with complex schedules or frequent travel the company offers flexibility a fixed employment relationship doesn't have; for vacation homes not regularly used, the company is structurally better suited; and for those who need fast sickness replacement, the private employer can't manage it alone while the company does it by definition.

Practical resources

• AVS — simplified procedure: ahv-iv.ch
• Suva domestic work: suva.ch
• Contract templates: Allpura (free for members, accessible publicly)
• AVS contributions calculator: on the AVS site
• 2026 LPP threshold: updated on bsv.admin.ch

For specific tax advice (employee residence, work permits for foreigners), it's worth consulting a local fiduciary.