Federal Act
on Value Added Tax
(Value Added Tax Act, VAT Act)

¹ The tax rate is 8.1 per cent (stand­ard rate), sub­ject to para­graphs 2 and 3.⁵³

² The re­duced tax rate of 2.6 per cent ap­plies to:⁵⁴

a.

the sup­ply of the fol­low­ing goods:

1.

tap wa­ter,

2.⁵⁵

food­stuffs un­der the Food­stuffs Act of 20 June 2014⁵⁶, with the ex­cep­tion of al­co­hol­ic bever­ages,

3.

cattle, poultry, fish,

4.

grains,

5.

seeds, plant­ing roots and bulbs, liv­ing plants, cut­tings, scions and cut flowers and branches, in­clud­ing those used in ar­range­ments bou­quets, wreaths, etc.; if in­voiced sep­ar­ately, the sup­ply of these goods is also sub­ject to the re­duced tax rate, even if it is made in com­bin­a­tion with a sup­ply tax­able at the stand­ard rate,

6.

an­im­al feed, sil­age acids, scat­ter­ings for an­im­als,

7.

fer­til­isers, pesti­cides, mulch and oth­er ve­get­a­tion used as cov­er­ing ma­ter­i­al,

8.

med­ic­a­tion,

9.

news­pa­pers, magazines, books and oth­er prin­ted mat­ter without ad­vert­ising char­ac­ter of the kinds to be stip­u­lated by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil;

a^bis.⁵⁷

elec­tron­ic news­pa­pers, magazines and books without ad­vert­ising char­ac­ter as defined by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil;

b.

the sup­ply of ser­vices of ra­dio and tele­vi­sion com­pan­ies, with the ex­cep­tion of ser­vices of a com­mer­cial nature;

c.

the sup­plies un­der Art­icle 21 para­graph 2 num­bers 14–16;

d.

ag­ri­cul­tur­al sup­plies that con­sist of land cul­tiv­a­tion dir­ectly re­lated to ini­tial pro­duc­tion or cul­tiv­a­tion of ini­tial pro­duc­tion products con­nec­ted with the land.

³ For food­stuffs that form part of res­taur­ant sup­plies, the stand­ard rate ap­plies. A res­taur­ant sup­ply is the serving of food­stuffs provided the tax­able per­son pre­pares or serves the food­stuffs on the cus­tom­er’s premises or the tax­able per­son main­tains spe­cial in­stall­a­tions for their con­sump­tion on the spot. If food­stuffs, with the ex­cep­tion of al­co­hol­ic bever­ages, are destined to be taken away or for de­liv­ery, the re­duced tax rate ap­plies provided suit­able or­gan­isa­tion­al meas­ures are taken to dif­fer­en­ti­ate these sup­plies from res­taur­ant sup­plies; if this is not the case, the stand­ard rate ap­plies. Where food­stuffs, with the ex­cep­tion of al­co­hol­ic bever­ages, are offered in vend­ing ma­chines, the re­duced tax rate ap­plies.⁵⁸

⁴ The tax on ac­com­mod­a­tion ser­vices is 3.8 per cent (spe­cial rate).⁵⁹ The spe­cial rate ap­plies un­til 31 Decem­ber 2020 or, in the event that the time lim­it in Art­icle 196 num­ber 14 para­graph 1 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion is ex­ten­ded, un­til 31 Decem­ber 2027 at the latest. An ac­com­mod­a­tion ser­vice is the pro­vi­sion of ac­com­mod­a­tion, in­clud­ing the serving of break­fast, even if it is in­voiced sep­ar­ately.⁶⁰

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify in great­er de­tail the goods and ser­vices des­ig­nated in para­graph 2; in do­ing so it shall ob­serve the prin­ciple of com­pet­it­ive neut­ral­ity.