The Legal Framework of the Headquarters — conclusion

Conclusion of Part C

Part C has described the headquarters economy of Zug. Chapter I showed that the canton's industrial enterprises, Landis & Gyr, the Metallwarenfabrik, Bossard and Roche's diagnostics centre in Rotkreuz, survived and transformed themselves into international groups or parts of them and that their industrial heritage made the canton attractive to companies that needed more than a registered seat. Chapter II traced the arrival of multinational headquarters, from Varian in 1959 to the life sciences cluster of the 1980s to 2010s, and to the recent moves of SGS from Geneva and Vontobel from Zurich. Chapter III set out the legal framework within which these headquarters operate: the commercial register, the requirement of a Swiss resident representative, the company law reform of 2023, the non-financial reporting and due diligence rules, the new transparency register, the international requirements of substance, the rules on foreign staff and the Lex Koller.

The headquarters economy has made Zug the canton with the highest economic output per inhabitant in Switzerland. In the process, it has turned a canton of registered seats into a canton of real companies. The international tax standards that ended the status regimes have contributed to this transformation by requiring substance. The transparency register, in force from 1 October 2026, will end the anonymity that the canton's company register once offered. The limits of growth, above all in housing, are becoming the main constraint on the further expansion of the headquarters economy.

In five sentences

1. The industrial enterprises founded in Zug before the tax turn, Landis & Gyr, the Metallwarenfabrik and Bossard, survived and became international groups or parts of them, while Roche turned a small acquisition in 1969 into the headquarters of its global diagnostics business and the largest private employer of the canton.

2. From Varian in 1959 to Johnson & Johnson, Biogen, Amgen and others, the life sciences cluster made Zug a location for the international commercial functions of more than half of the world's fifteen largest pharmaceutical companies.

3. The move of SGS from Geneva to Baar in 2025 and 2026 and the planned move of Vontobel from Zurich to Baar by 2030 show that the canton's attraction for headquarters is undiminished and that it now draws on space, accessibility and talent as much as on tax.

4. The company law reform of 2023 and the non-financial reporting and due diligence rules have modernised the legal framework for the more than 38,000 companies registered in the canton, which the federal transparency register will tighten further from 1 October 2026.

5. The international tax standards reward real substance in Zug and penalise its absence, whereas the scarcity of housing, with a vacancy rate of 0.39 per cent, has become the principal limit on the further growth of the headquarters economy.

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of September 2025.