VAT on foreign services/purchases

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
1
Apologies if this is already covered but I couldn't find the answer via the search function...

If you run a business in Switzerland (but are under the VAT threshold for charging VAT - not sure if this is relevant or not), and you purchase services and goods from overseas, do you need to pay SWISS VAT on these services? (Many of the services are not physical so will not go through customs and the company providing the services in the UK is not subject to charging VAT in UK - also working below the UK VAT threshold)

Also as a second question (please treat separately so I don't get confused!!), I often use UK suppliers for products which are shipped to Switzerland. They nearly always get stopped at customs and I pay the appropriate fees and tax. If your package does not get stopped, do you have any obligation to go and declare the item and pay tax? Is this something that might get picked up in your business accounts?

Thanks in advance

2
http://www.estv.admin.ch/mwst/themen...x.html?lang=en

http://www.estv.admin.ch/mwst/themen...x.html?lang=en

Anne Summers + Swiss Postal MWSt tax charge!

Also search the forum using the Google powered option on Mwst, VAT etc. for find more threads of interest.

3
Hi

Thanks for taking the time to post but unfortunately none of these apply in my situation. I am pretty familiar with what happens with the customs applying tax but it's the incidences when either the service isn't physical or it hasn't been charged by customs that I am interested in...

So it's more about what happens when your company accounts are checked...

Thanks.

PS I originally posted this in Business and Entreprenuer as it is very much a business rather than consumer question... the thread got moved, perhaps I didn't give it a good enough title... but I really need an answer from a business perspective...