VAT registration for mail order companies

• Anyone who in 2018 achieves a turnover of at least CHF 100,000 from small consignments and if it can be assumed that such deliveries will also be made in the twelve months from 1 January 2019, will be subject to compulsory taxation from 1 January 2019. Small consignments are deemed to be small consignments if the tax amount is CHF 5 or less and therefore no import tax is levied.
• If goods are not supplied from abroad to Switzerland until 1 January 2019 and are exempt from import tax on account of the insignificant amount of tax, the place of supply is deemed to be abroad until the end of the month in which the supplier (mail order company) reaches the turnover limit of CHF 100,000 from such supplies. From the following month onwards, the place of delivery is deemed to be located in Switzerland for all (transport and dispatch) deliveries by the mail-order company from abroad to Switzerland. He must then be entered in the VAT register.

The FTA provides on its website a list of companies registered as mail order companies in the VAT register. This list enables companies entrusted with customs clearance to distinguish whether import tax is charged to the recipient of a parcel or to the taxable mail-order company.

From 15 November 2018 onwards, mail order companies that register for VAT purposes will be required to indicate when registering online that they are acting as mail order companies and agree to be published on the list in order to be included on the list. Inclusion in the list is in the interests of mail order companies, as it helps to avoid incorrect charging and complaints from customers.

Mail-order companies can voluntarily make themselves subject to tax by submitting a "Declaration of subordination abroad" even before they reach the turnover threshold for obligatory tax liability and be entered in Switzerland's VAT register. In this procedure, the taxable mail-order company is regarded as the importer and can also claim the import tax as input tax, provided the conditions for this are met. The delivery to the domestic purchaser is then considered a domestic delivery (analogous procedure to the mail order scheme). By choosing the prior declaration of subordination abroad, the transition to the obligatory tax liability under the mail order regulation can be better planned. In this case, settlement using the balance or flat-rate tax rate method is not possible - in the same way as under the mail-order regulation.