Stricter rules for cross-border online trade
Silvia Hunziker
The rules for cross-border online trade will be tightened: the Federal Council must take measures to make foreign online marketplaces and service platforms subject to value-added tax when supplying goods or services to Switzerland.
The aim is to avoid losses in value added tax. On Wednesday the National Council tacitly adopted a motion to this effect from the Council of States.
Mail-order companies now have to pay value-added tax on sales of CHF 100,000 or more in Switzerland. However, the problem that foreign online marketplaces and service platforms are not regarded as sellers but as intermediaries from the point of view of tax law remains unsolved. They should now also be subject to value added tax.
The Federal Council had agreed to accept the initiative. Finance Minister Ueli Maurer explained to the Council of States that it would make sense to close the existing gaps. Even the small chamber had approved the motion without any dissenting vote.
.
