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

¹ A sup­ply that is ex­empt from the tax without cred­it and for which tax­a­tion un­der Art­icle 22 is not op­ted for is not tax­able.

² Ex­empt from the tax without cred­it are:

1.³⁷

the trans­port of let­ters that is in­cluded in the re­served ser­vices un­der Art­icle 18 of the Postal Ser­vices Act of 17 Decem­ber 2010³⁸;

2.³⁹

hos­pit­al treat­ment and med­ic­al treat­ment in hu­man medi­cine hos­pit­als, in­clud­ing closely re­lated sup­plies made by hos­pit­als, med­ic­al treat­ment and dia­gnost­ic centres, out-pa­tient fa­cil­it­ies and day hos­pit­als. The dis­pens­ing of self-man­u­fac­tured or bought-in ar­ti­fi­cial limbs and or­tho­paed­ic equip­ment is deemed to be a tax­able sup­ply of goods;

3.

hu­man med­ic­al treat­ment provided by doc­tors, dent­ists, psy­cho­ther­ap­ists, chiro­pract­ors, physio­ther­ap­ists, na­tur­o­paths, mid­wives, nurs­ing pro­fes­sion­als or mem­bers of sim­il­ar med­ic­al and nurs­ing pro­fes­sions, provided the sup­pli­ers pos­sess a li­cence to prac­tise their pro­fes­sion: the Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the de­tails. The dis­pens­ing of self-man­u­fac­tured or bought-in ar­ti­fi­cial limbs and or­tho­paed­ic equip­ment is deemed to be a tax­able sup­ply of goods;

3^bis.⁴⁰

co­ordin­ated care ser­vices in con­nec­tion with med­ic­al treat­ment;

4.

the nurs­ing care ser­vices sup­plied by nurs­ing staff, nurs­ing or­gan­isa­tions and home aid (Spi­tex) or in homes, provided they are pre­scribed by a doc­tor;

5.

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

6.

the ser­vices of com­munit­ies whose mem­bers are mem­bers of the pro­fes­sions lis­ted in num­ber 3, provided the ser­vices are sup­plied pro­por­tion­ately at cost price to the mem­bers for dir­ect per­form­ance of their activ­it­ies;

7.

the trans­port of sick or in­jured per­sons or per­sons with dis­ab­il­it­ies in vehicles spe­cially ad­ap­ted for the pur­pose;

8.⁴¹

sup­plies provided by so­cial as­sist­ance and so­cial se­cur­ity in­sti­tu­tions, sup­plies by nurs­ing and home aid (Spi­tex) or­gan­isa­tions and by re­tire­ment, res­id­en­tial and nurs­ing homes;

9.

sup­plies re­lated to child and youth care provided by in­sti­tu­tions spe­cially fit­ted for the pur­pose;

10.

sup­plies closely re­lated to cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al de­vel­op­ment of young people provided by char­it­able youth ex­change or­gan­isa­tions; young people with­in the mean­ing of this pro­vi­sion are per­sons up to the age of 25;

11.

the fol­low­ing sup­plies in the field of edu­ca­tion and train­ing:⁴²

a.⁴³

sup­plies in the field of the edu­ca­tion of chil­dren and young people, of in­struc­tion, of train­ing, of con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing and of pro­fes­sion­al re-train­ing, in­clud­ing in­struc­tion giv­en by private teach­ers or at private schools,

b.

courses, lec­tures, and oth­er events of a sci­entif­ic or edu­ca­tion­al nature; lec­tur­ing activ­ity is ex­empt from the tax without cred­it, ir­re­spect­ive of wheth­er the fee is paid to the in­struct­ing per­son or that per­son’s em­ploy­er,

c.

ex­am­in­a­tions car­ried out in the area of edu­ca­tion,

d.

or­gan­isa­tion­al ser­vices (in­clud­ing re­lated an­cil­lary ser­vices) provided by mem­bers of an in­sti­tu­tion that makes sup­plies ex­empt from the tax without cred­it un­der let­ters a–c, for this in­sti­tu­tion,

e.

or­gan­isa­tion­al ser­vices (in­clud­ing re­lated an­cil­lary ser­vices) for agen­cies of the Con­fed­er­a­tion, can­tons and com­munes that make sup­plies ex­empt from the tax without cred­it un­der let­ters a–c with or without con­sid­er­a­tion;

12.⁴⁴

the pro­vi­sion of staff by non-profit in­sti­tu­tions for pur­poses of treat­ing the sick, of so­cial as­sist­ance and of so­cial se­cur­ity, of child and youth care, of edu­ca­tion and train­ing and for re­li­gious and char­it­able pur­poses and for the com­mon good;

13.

sup­plies that non-profit in­sti­tu­tions with polit­ic­al, trade uni­on, eco­nom­ic, re­li­gious, pat­ri­ot­ic, philo­soph­ic­al, phil­an­throp­ic, eco­lo­gic­al, sport­ing, cul­tur­al or civic ob­jects provide to their mem­bers against a con­tri­bu­tion laid down in stat­utes or reg­u­la­tions;

14.

cul­tur­al ser­vices of the types lis­ted be­low sup­plied dir­ectly to, or, if not sup­plied dir­ectly, im­me­di­ately per­ceiv­able by the pub­lic:⁴⁵

a.

the­at­ric­al, mu­sic­al and cho­reo­graph­ic per­form­ances and film shows,

b.⁴⁶

per­form­ances by act­ors, mu­si­cians, dan­cers and oth­er per­form­ing artists, sup­plies from per­sons that make an artist­ic con­tri­bu­tion to such per­form­ances, and sup­plies by fair­ground op­er­at­ors, in­clud­ing games of skill offered by the lat­ter,

c.

vis­its to mu­seums, gal­ler­ies, monu­ments, his­tor­ic­al sites and botan­ic­al and zo­olo­gic­al gar­dens,

d.

ser­vices of lib­rar­ies, archives and places for stor­ing doc­u­ments, in par­tic­u­lar the per­mit­ting of in­spec­tion of text, sound and im­age car­ri­ers on their premises; however, the sup­ply of goods (in­clud­ing lend­ing for use) by such in­sti­tu­tions is tax­able;

14^bis.⁴⁷

con­sid­er­a­tions de­man­ded for par­ti­cip­a­tion in cul­tur­al events (e.g. re­gis­tra­tion fees), to­geth­er with the an­cil­lary ser­vices in­cluded;

15.⁴⁸

con­sid­er­a­tions de­man­ded for sport­ing events, in­clud­ing con­sid­er­a­tions for par­ti­cip­a­tion in such events (e.g. start­ing money), to­geth­er with the an­cil­lary ser­vices in­cluded;

16.⁴⁹

cul­tur­al ser­vices and the sup­ply of cul­tur­al works by their cre­at­ors, such as au­thors, com­posers, film makers, paint­ers, sculptors, and ser­vices sup­plied by pub­lish­ers and col­lect­ing so­ci­et­ies in or­der to cir­cu­late these works; the fore­go­ing also ap­plies to de­riv­at­ive works un­der Art­icle 3 of the Copy­right Act of 9 Oc­to­ber 1992⁵⁰ that are of a cul­tur­al nature;

17.⁵¹

sup­plies made at events such as bazaars, flea mar­kets and raffles held by or­gan­isa­tions that per­form activ­it­ies that are ex­empt from the tax without cred­it in the field of non-profit-mak­ing sports and cul­tur­al cre­ativ­ity, in the field of health care, so­cial as­sist­ance and so­cial se­cur­ity, and child and youth care, and by char­it­able nurs­ing and home care (Spi­tex) or­gan­isa­tions and by re­tire­ment, res­id­en­tial and nurs­ing homes, provided the events serve the pur­pose of sup­port­ing these or­gan­isa­tions fin­an­cially and are held ex­clus­ively for their be­ne­fit; sup­plies provided by so­cial as­sist­ance and so­cial se­cur­ity or­gan­isa­tions through second hand shops when the turnover thus gen­er­ated is used ex­clus­ively for their be­ne­fit;

18.⁵²

in the in­sur­ance in­dustry:

a.

in­sur­ance and re­in­sur­ance sup­plies,

b.

so­cial in­sur­ance sup­plies,

c.

the fol­low­ing sup­plies in re­la­tion to so­cial in­sur­ance and pre­ven­tion cam­paigns:

–

sup­plies made by so­cial in­sur­ance schemes to each oth­er

–

sup­plies made by ex­ec­ut­ive bod­ies as part of their stat­utory duty to run pre­ven­tion cam­paigns

–

sup­plies re­lated to ba­sic and con­tinu­ing pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion and train­ing,

d.

sup­plies with­in the scope of the activ­ity as in­sur­ance agents or in­sur­ance brokers;

19.

the fol­low­ing turnovers in the field of money and cap­it­al trans­ac­tions:

a.

the grant­ing and broker­age of cred­its and the man­age­ment of cred­its by the lenders,

b.

the broker­age and as­sump­tion of li­ab­il­it­ies, sureties and oth­er se­cur­it­ies and guar­an­tees and the man­age­ment of col­lat­er­al by the lenders,

c.

turnovers, in­clud­ing those for broker­age, in de­pos­its and cur­rent ac­count trans­ac­tions, in pay­ment and trans­fer trans­ac­tions, in busi­ness with money claims, cheques and oth­er ne­go­ti­able pa­pers; however, the col­lec­tion of debts on be­half of the cred­it­or (debt en­force­ment busi­ness) is tax­able,

d.

turnovers, in­clud­ing broker­age, re­lat­ing to leg­al tender (do­mest­ic and for­eign leg­al tender, such as cur­rency, bank notes, coins); tax­able, however, are col­lect­ors’ items (bank notes and coins) that are nor­mally not used as leg­al tender,

e.

turnovers (spot and for­ward trans­ac­tions), in­clud­ing broker­age, of se­cur­it­ies, rights and de­riv­at­ives and of in­terests in com­pan­ies and oth­er forms of as­so­ci­ation; however, the safe-keep­ing and the man­age­ment of se­cur­it­ies, rights and de­riv­at­ives and of in­terests (es­pe­cially se­cur­ity de­pos­its) in­clud­ing fi­du­ciary in­vest­ments are tax­able,

f.⁵³

of­fer­ing units in col­lect­ive in­vest­ment schemes in ac­cord­ance with the Col­lect­ive In­vest­ment Schemes Act of 23 June 2006⁵⁴ (CISA) and the man­age­ment of col­lect­ive in­vest­ment schemes in ac­cord­ance with CISA by per­sons who man­age such schemes or are re­spons­ible for the safe­keep­ing of the as­sets held in them, fund man­age­ment com­pan­ies, cus­todi­an banks and their agents; agents are re­garded as any nat­ur­al per­sons or leg­al en­tit­ies that may be del­eg­ated tasks by col­lect­ive cap­it­al in­vest­ment schemes in ac­cord­ance with the CISA or the Fin­an­cial In­sti­tu­tions Act of 15 June 2018⁵⁵; the of­fer­ing of units and the man­age­ment of in­vest­ment com­pan­ies with fixed cap­it­al in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 110 CISA is gov­erned by let­ter e,

g.⁵⁶

the of­fer­ing of in­vest­ment groups by in­vest­ment found­a­tions in ac­cord­ance with the Fed­er­al Act of 25 June 1982⁵⁷ on Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Old-Age, Sur­viv­ors' and In­valid­ity Pen­sion Pro­vi­sion (OPA) and the man­age­ment of in­vest­ment groups in ac­cord­ance with the OPA by per­sons who man­age such groups or are re­spons­ible for the safe­keep­ing of the as­sets held in them, the cus­todi­an banks and their agents; agents are deemed to be any nat­ur­al per­sons or leg­al en­tit­ies to whom the in­vest­ment found­a­tions may del­eg­ate tasks;

20.

the trans­fer and the cre­ation of rights in rem in im­mov­able prop­erty and the sup­plies of com­munit­ies of con­domin­i­um own­ers to the con­domin­i­um own­ers, to the ex­tent the sup­plies con­sist of the pro­vi­sion of the com­mun­al prop­erty for use, its main­ten­ance, its re­pair and oth­er man­age­ment and the sup­ply of heat­ing and sim­il­ar goods;

21.

the pro­vi­sion of im­mov­able prop­erty and parts of im­mov­able prop­erty for use or ex­ploit­a­tion; tax­able, however, are:

a.

the rent­ing of res­id­en­tial and sleep­ing ac­com­mod­a­tion for guests and the rent­ing of halls and rooms in ho­tels and res­taur­ants,

b.

the rent­ing of camp­ing sites,

c.

the rent­ing or leas­ing of non-pub­lic places for park­ing mo­tor vehicles, un­less it is a non-in­de­pend­ent ser­vice an­cil­lary to an­oth­er prop­erty rent­al ex­empt from the tax without cred­it,

d.

the rent­ing and leas­ing of im­mov­able equip­ment and ma­chines be­long­ing to an op­er­at­ing fa­cil­ity, but not to a sports fa­cil­ity,

e.

the rent­ing of safe de­pos­it boxes,

f.

the rent­ing of ex­hib­i­tion stands and in­di­vidu­al rooms in ex­hib­i­tion and con­gress build­ings;

22.

the sup­ply of postal stamps val­id on Swiss ter­rit­ory and oth­er of­fi­cial stamps up to their prin­ted value;

23.⁵⁸

turnovers from gambling, to the ex­tent that the gross gam­ing in­come is sub­ject to the casino tax un­der Art­icle 119 of the Gambling Act of 29 Septem­ber 2017⁵⁹ or the net profit achieved thereby is used in full for char­it­able pur­poses with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 125 of the said Act;

24.

the sup­ply of used mov­able goods, which were used ex­clus­ively for the pro­vi­sion of sup­plies ex­empt by this art­icle from the tax without cred­it;

25.⁶⁰

…

26.

the sale of ag­ri­cul­tur­al, forestry and mar­ket garden products cul­tiv­ated in their own busi­ness by farm­ers, for­est­ers or garden­ers, the sale of cattle by cattle deal­ers, and the sale of milk by milk col­lec­tion points to milk pro­cessing plants;

27.

pub­li­city ser­vices, which char­it­able or­gan­isa­tions provide for the be­ne­fit of third parties or third parties for the be­ne­fit of char­it­able or­gan­isa­tions;

28.⁶¹

sup­plies:

a.

between or­gan­isa­tion­al units with­in the same pub­lic au­thor­ity,

b.

between private or pub­lic law com­pan­ies owned wholly by pub­lic au­thor­it­ies and the pub­lic au­thor­it­ies that own them or their or­gan­isa­tion­al units,

c.⁶²

between in­sti­tu­tions or found­a­tions that have been es­tab­lished or are run ex­clus­ively by pub­lic au­thor­it­ies and these pub­lic au­thor­it­ies and their or­gan­isa­tion­al units;

28^bis.⁶³

the pro­vi­sion of staff by pub­lic au­thor­it­ies to oth­er pub­lic au­thor­it­ies;

29.

the ex­er­cise of ar­bit­ra­tion func­tions;

30.⁶⁴

sup­plies between edu­ca­tion and re­search in­sti­tu­tions that are in­volved in edu­ca­tion and re­search co­oper­a­tion, provided those sup­plies are made as part of the co­oper­a­tion, ir­re­spect­ive of wheth­er the edu­ca­tion and re­search co­oper­a­tion is li­able to value ad­ded tax;

31.⁶⁵

travel ser­vices re­tailed by travel agents and re­lated travel agency ser­vices.

³ Wheth­er a sup­ply men­tioned in para­graph 2 is ex­empt from the tax without cred­it is de­term­ined, sub­ject to para­graph 4, ex­clus­ively by its nature and re­gard­less of who makes or re­ceives the sup­ply.

⁴ If a sup­ply in para­graph 2 is ex­empt from the tax without cred­it based on the at­trib­utes either of the sup­pli­er or of the re­cip­i­ent of the sup­ply, the ex­cep­tion ap­plies only for sup­plies that are provided or re­ceived by a per­son with these at­trib­utes.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify in more de­tail the sup­plies ex­empt from the tax without cred­it; in do­ing so it shall ob­serve the prin­ciple of com­pet­it­ive neut­ral­ity.

⁶ Or­gan­isa­tion­al units of a pub­lic au­thor­ity un­der para­graph 2 num­ber 28 are its agen­cies, its private and pub­lic com­pan­ies, provided no oth­er pub­lic au­thor­ity or oth­er third parties par­ti­cip­ate therein, and its in­sti­tu­tions and found­a­tions, provided the pub­lic au­thor­ity foun­ded them without the par­ti­cip­a­tion of oth­er pub­lic au­thor­it­ies or oth­er third parties.⁶⁶

⁷ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine which in­sti­tu­tions are deemed to be edu­ca­tion and re­search in­sti­tu­tions un­der para­graph 2 num­ber 30.⁶⁷