As a rule, every consignment from abroad is liable to customs duty and VAT. As the recipient of a consignment from abroad, you pay the necessary VAT on the value of the goods and customs duty on the gross weight. Depending on the goods, other fees may be charged. These costs should nevertheless not be confused with the carriage charges paid by the sender when the consignment is posted.

In general, all items must be registered. Exceptions include Postcards and Letters which contain only personal or business communications.

As a rule, every consignment from abroad is liable to customs duty and VAT.

There is no special tax-free limit as with passenger traffic, only a fee exemption limit. Accordingly, customs duties and value added tax are not charged if the amount calculated is less than CHF 5.00 per customs declaration, whereby customs and VAT charges are considered separately. Gifts sent from private individuals living abroad to private individuals in Switzerland are duty-free up to a goods value of CHF 100.00. Goods purchased on the Internet do not satisfy these conditions. They are subject to duty in accordance with the general provisions.

The upper limit of the goods value (incl. transport costs) for an import exempt from VAT is:

• 7.7% VAT (applicable to majority of all consignments) => CHF 65.00 
• 2.5% VAT (special goods such as books) => CHF 200.00

For more information, see import customs clearance.

The Swiss postal customs clearance blocks false or incorrectly declared import consignments. As the recipient, a letter of advice will be sent to you requesting that you provide the missing information. With regard to delivery, you can then choose between the following two options:

You provide postal customs clearance with the information required to release the item and you pay the additional processing charges when the item is delivered to you. 

You do not want to pay for the sender’s mistake and therefore refuse delivery. Postal customs clearance then returns the consignment to the sender.

Further details on the current fees can be found under Levies, Fees/Surcharges (Inspection, Value Clarification and Storage).

Swiss Post does not recognize collective items and does not have the logistical capability to process parcels from a collective item in a series and to identify them accordingly. The sender is therefore instructed to enclose a correct commercial invoice with each parcel indicating the exact value of the parcel.

Insofar as the postal customs clearance recognizes that a consignment is a collective items, it adapts the goods value accordingly, e.g. with the remark "1 of 5 parcels". In this case, however, five customs clearances are required which are invoiced individually.

If the consignment was not recognized as a collective items, Swisspost can request a correction for the difference of the VAT paid in excess to the Swiss Customs Administration (FCA). It is crucial that the number of packages is visible on the commercial invoice or on the package.

Only legal entities which have a billing relationship with Swiss Post can take advantage of this option. For an import duty to be charged to the monthly invoice, you must register with Swiss Post.

You can register at Registration for the monthly billing of import levies.

You can indicate your ZAZ account for customs or ZAZ account for VAT online at www.swisspost.ch/import. We charge import duties and VAT to the relevant accounts; the customs clearance fees are charged to your monthly Swiss Post invoice.

Swiss Post applies the surcharge...

...if a consignment cannot clear customs due to missing, unreliable or incomplete customs documents and must therefore be opened
...if, due to missing or incomplete customs documents or due to the contents, a consignment must be placed in storage until the missing information is received or until the recipient or customs authorities take the decision concerning customs clearance.

The inspection, value clarification and storage surcharge is only applied once per consignment and totals CHF 13.00 excl. VAT. No supplement will be charged for duty-free consignments.

Advise the sender that he must declare the postal item adequately. He must indicate the contents and value of the goods on the consignment for customs clearance purposes (either in the form of a customs declaration CN22/CN23 or a commercial invoice). These customs documents must be affixed on the outside of the consignment.

Please contact the service provider responsible for the customs clearance of your consignment. Swiss Post’s Postal customs clearance customer service will be able to help you further. Please observe the time limits prescribed by the Federal Customs Administration (FCA) for objections (in accordance with Article 34 and 116 of the Customs Act).

60 days from the issue date of the electronic tax assessment decision for change of procedure, address corrections, correction of customs duties and the related customs tariff numbers or declarations of origin.

5 years from the end of the calendar year in which the electronic tax assessment was issued for matters regarding the assessment of VAT, such as an inflated goods value or incorrect VAT calculation.

The appeal must be received within the time limit mentioned above. Appeals submitted outside these time limits cannot not be dealt with (case will not be considered). Further information can be found at https://www.ezv.admin.ch.

Swiss Post does not recognize batch consignments and does not have the logistical capability to process parcels from a batch consignment in sequence and to identify them accordingly. The sender is therefore instructed to enclose a correct commercial invoice with each parcel indicating its exact value.

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If you think that incorrect customs duties were applied to your consignment, you can submit a request for a correction to the Federal Customs Administration. We are happy to do this for you. Nevertheless, please note that a request incurs a charge (at least CHF 30.00) and Post CH Ltd only assumes the costs charged by the Federal Customs Administration if it can be ruled out that the sender has made an error when declaring the goods. Otherwise, the costs will be passed on to the recipient. Please be aware, that all correction requests must be received by the Federal Customs Administration within 60 days after the issuance of the Tax assessment decision.

To submit a request to the Federal Customs Administration, we need the following documents:

• Import documents
• Proof of value (invoice/payment slip)
• Cover letter stating the reasons for the request (alternatively, you can write your reasons in the text field below)

You can find more information from the Federal Customs Administration here.

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Gift consignments are not subject to customs duties, provided the following criteria are met:

• Private sender and private recipient
• For personal/private use
• Value up to CHF 100.00
• Declared as a gift (on the shipping documents) or clearly recognizable as a gift

• Tobacco products
• Alcoholic beverages
• Other gifts that are subject to non-customs legislation (see Levies, Non-customs regulatory legislation)

The value is calculated on the basis of numerous elements. Example of a consignment from Germany
(all amounts in CHF):

When you perform the customs declaration, you have the following means of determining the transport costs:

If the transport costs are indicated on the accompanying documents, they are included in the calculation of the value of the goods.
If the transport costs are indicated on the accompanying documents as part of the value of the goods, no additional transport costs will be included in the value added tax amount.
In the case of gifts sent by private individuals to other private individuals up to a value of CHF 100.00, the transport costs are not included in the value added tax amount.

Since 1 January 2018, the following VAT rates apply:

• Normal rate on taxable deliveries and services: 7.7%
• Reduced rate on taxable deliveries and services (e.g. books): 2.5%

In general, all services relating to an import consignment are liable for VAT, irrespective of whether they concern transport or customs clearance. All services which are provided before and during effective customs clearance are to be taken into account in the VAT amount in accordance with customs regulations and are to be taxed accordingly (for example the customs clearance itself, see VAT Act, article 52). Services which arise during the customs clearance process and which cannot be foreseen are taxed on the Swiss Post invoice at a rate of 7.7%.

There are two possible scenarios:

• If the recipient is a company which can claim the deduction of input tax, VAT paid twice will not be refunded. The company can claim it as part of the input tax payment process (Article 80, para. 2 of the Swiss VAT Act). The recipient has this right if he will be using the imported items for business-related purposes (Article 38, paragraph 1c, paragraph 2 and paragraph 7c of the VAT Act).
  As the customs clearance service has been provided twice, it is payable twice. Consequently, both invoices must be paid in full. 

• If the recipient is a private individual, he must prove to the customs authorities the existence of an import, a subsequent export and another import. A corresponding import customs clearance document and proof of export (export customs clearance document, waybill specifying contents or similar) will be accepted as proof. With this proof, the VAT can be claimed back. Please provide all the documents (i.e. import documents, export documents and proof of re-import) with a corresponding note.

For active repair traffic, i.e. for goods that you import to Switzerland for repair, the following rules apply:

• Items of Swiss origin imported for repair can be cleared as duty-free provided the VAT value is no higher than CHF 1,298.00.
• Goods imported for repair originating abroad are cleared for customs as normal or with free passage.
• You can claim the VAT back after re-export or clam the deduction of input tax (subject to a fee).

For passive repair traffic, the goods have been repaired abroad and are returning to Switzerland. In this case, VAT is only charged on the new material and the labour costs. However, these two elements must be clearly stated on the commercial invoice.

Yes, for goods consignments returned to the sender because of refusal to accept, rescission of the sale, returns of unsatisfactory goods, damage or defects. This does not apply to consignments for which it was clear from the outset that they are only being temporarily imported into Switzerland.

You can find more information here.

If you have returned the goods, we can submit a request to the Federal Customs Administration to refund the import levies as the goods are being re-exported. A processing fee of 5% of the refunded amount is incurred, which is nevertheless a minimum of CHF 30.00 and a maximum of CHF 500.00. Please be aware that no reimbursement claims can be submitted for companies that are entitled to reclaim VAT. All correction requests must be received by the Federal Customs Administration within 60 days after the re-exportation.

We require the following documents to submit such a request to the Federal Customs Administration:

• Import documents
• Proof of export (waybill/postal receipt)
• Invoices/delivery notes
• Receipts of payments and transfers (credits)

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Evidence that it concerns a replacement consignment must be supplied to the customs authorities. This is done by submitting the appropriate import and export documents including waybills with correct data. It is possible to request a VAT refund with these documents.

As a general rule, all services relating to an import consignment are subject to VAT. All services which are provided before and during actual customs clearance are to be taken into account in the VAT amount in accordance with customs regulations, and are to be taxed accordingly (such as the customs clearance itself, see VAT Act, article 52).

There are various types of repair traffic, which are handled differently:

Goods are imported in order to be repaired in Switzerland (active repair traffic = repair in Switzerland):

• Goods of Swiss origin are processed duty-free, provided that the VAT value is not greater than CHF 1,250.00
• Goods imported for repair originating abroad are cleared for customs as normal
• A VAT refund may be claimed back after the re-export of the repaired good or a pre-tax deduction process may be claimed (for a fee)

The goods were repaired abroad and are being imported again into Switzerland (passive repair traffic = repair abroad):

• VAT applies only to the new material and to the wage costs, which must however be clearly disclosed in the commercial invoice.

There is no customs declaration charge for consignments with duty-free goods (Customs Act, article 8) and for consignments without duties.

The electronic assessment decision (eVV) is a proof of customs clearance issued by the Federal Customs Administration.

To obtain an electronic assessment decision (eVV) for customs clearance goods, use the “electronic customs clearance documents” (eCCD) online service. You can then save the eVV on your own IT infrastructure and print it out when necessary.

Companies liable for VAT are obliged by the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA) to keep an electronic copy of the assessment decision for eleven years (ten years + current year).

If you register a good for export electronically via e-dec Export, the electronic assessment decision is returned to the relevant customer tool. In this case, the eVV cannot be obtained via the www.swisspost.ch/ecd platform.

The electronic assessment decision is unnecessary when exporting items that are not subject to any permit obligations and have a value of up to CHF 1,000. In such cases, companies registered with the Federal Tax Administration (FTA) as legal entities liable for VAT can prove the export to the FTA as follows: with the dispatch list / dispatch receipt from Swiss Post and the relevant business documents (e.g. order, invoice copy, delivery contract, payment slip).

For the following products, an electronic assessment decision is available:

- PRIORITY and ECONOMY letters
- PostPac International PRIORITY and ECONOMY
- Swiss Post GLS parcels
- EMS parcels

As a rule, the electronic assessment decisions (eVV) are ready within 72 hours of successful customs clearance.

In principle, all natural or legal entities that export or import goods in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein are entitled to an eVV.