how is VAT calculated for IT consultant professionals in Switzerland?
Same rate in all cantons?
TIA
- Josh
Hi All,
VAT is a Federal tax in Switzerland and rates do not vary by canton.
Generally, businesses with annual sales revenues exceeding Fr 100'000 must register and charge VAT. Input VAT from purchases can be deducted using the effective method or it does not have to be under the simplified "net tax rate" (Saldosteuersatz) method.
An overview of Swiss VAT is at ch.ch (English):
You can also opt for fixed rate. Here, instead of offsetting input tax against output tax, you only pay over a fixed percentage of the total bill.
E.g. 1000 franc bill, + 7.70% = 1077. You pay over 6% (for example) of that. So 65 francs, meaning your 1000 franc bill is actually worth 1012 francs to you. If you're not making many VATable purchases it can be very worth while. The actual percentage is determined by according to what your business. I seem to recall when VAT was 8%, it was 6.6% for IT consultants.
To add to NotAllThere's discussion of the "net tax rate method" (Saldosteuersatzmethode), the VAT rate to be charged for IT Services/ IT Consulting on customer invoices is 7.7% and the VAT pay rate to the ESTV is 6.5% on these customer invoices. Actual input VAT is not tracked. See this link showing net tax rates for various industries:
https://www.gate.estv.admin.ch/mwst-...nentId=1005996
Another advantage to the simplified method is that only two VAT submissions are due per year.