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

¹ Ex­empt from the tax is the im­port of:

a.

goods in small quant­it­ies, of in­sig­ni­fic­ant value or with an in­sig­ni­fic­ant tax amount; the FDF shall is­sue more de­tailed pro­vi­sions;

b.

hu­man or­gans by re­cog­nised med­ic­al in­sti­tu­tions and hos­pit­als and of hu­man whole blood by per­sons pos­sess­ing the ne­ces­sary li­cence;

c.

works of art that were per­son­ally cre­ated by paint­ers or sculptors and are brought onto Swiss ter­rit­ory by them or on their be­half, sub­ject to Art­icle 54 para­graph 1 let­ter c;

d.

goods that are ex­empt from cus­toms du­ties un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 2 let­ters b–d, g and i–l CustA¹²⁶;

e.

goods un­der Art­icle 23 para­graph 2 num­ber 8 that are im­por­ted as part of a sup­ply of goods by air­lines un­der Art­icle 23 para­graph 2 num­ber 8 or are brought onto Swiss ter­rit­ory by such air­lines, provided they have pro­cured the goods pri­or to im­port as part of a sup­ply of goods and after the im­port use them for their own busi­ness activ­it­ies en­titling the tax­able per­son to make an in­put tax de­duc­tion (Art. 28);

f.

goods that have been as­sessed un­der the ex­port pro­ced­ure (Art. 61 CustA) and are re­turned un­altered to the con­signor on Swiss ter­rit­ory, provided they have not been ex­empt from the tax be­cause of ex­port; if the amount of tax is sub­stan­tial, the tax ex­emp­tion with cred­it is gran­ted by re­im­burse­ment; the pro­vi­sions of Art­icle 59 ap­ply by ana­logy;

g.¹²⁷

elec­tri­city in cables, gas via the nat­ur­al gas dis­tri­bu­tion net­work and dis­trict heat­ing;

h.

goods that are de­clared tax free in treat­ies gov­erned by in­ter­na­tion­al law;

i.

goods that are im­por­ted onto Swiss ter­rit­ory for tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion un­der Art­icles 9 and 58 CustA or for in­ward pro­cessing un­der Art­icles 12 and 59 CustA un­der the pro­ced­ure with en­ti­tle­ment to re­im­burse­ment, sub­ject to Art­icle 54 para­graph 1 let­ter d;

j.

goods that are tem­por­ar­ily im­por­ted onto Swiss ter­rit­ory by a per­son re­gistered on Swiss ter­rit­ory as a tax­able per­son for job pro­cessing un­der a work and la­bour con­tract and which are as­sessed un­der the pro­ced­ure for in­ward pro­cessing as be­ing con­di­tion­ally due for pay­ment (sus­pens­ive pro­ced­ure) (Art. 12 and 59 CustA);

k.

goods that were ex­por­ted from Swiss ter­rit­ory un­der Art­icle 9 and 58 CustA for tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion or un­der Art­icles 13 and 60 CustA for out­ward job pro­cessing un­der a work and la­bour con­tract and are re­turned to the con­signor on Swiss ter­rit­ory, sub­ject to Art­icle 54 para­graph 1 let­ter e;

l.

goods that have been taken abroad for job pro­cessing un­der a work and la­bour con­tract un­der the ex­port pro­ced­ure (Art. 61 CustA) and are re­turned to the con­signor on Swiss ter­rit­ory, sub­ject to Art­icle 54 para­graph 1 let­ter f;

m.¹²⁸

gold and al­loys of gold in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 23 para­graph 2 item 12.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may ex­empt from the im­port tax goods that it de­clares ex­empt from cus­toms du­ties un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 2 let­ter a CustA.