Mail order and VAT in Switzerland

If items are delivered to Switzerland from abroad that are exempt from import tax due to the small tax amount of CHF 5 or less, the place of delivery is considered to be abroad until the end of the month in which the service provider ( Mail order company) has reached the sales limit of 100 CGF from such deliveries. 

From the following month, the place of delivery for all (transport and shipping) deliveries by the mail order company from abroad to within the country is considered to be within the country. He must then be registered in the VAT register. By means of a “foreign declaration of subordination”, mail order companies can voluntarily subject themselves to tax liability before the sales limit for mandatory tax liability has been reached and have themselves entered in the Swiss VAT register. 

In this procedure, the taxable mail order company is considered an importer and can also claim the import tax as input tax, provided the requirements for this are met. The delivery to the domestic buyer is subsequently considered a domestic delivery (analogous procedure to the regulation in mail order).