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

¹ The tax im­posed on im­port shall be re­fun­ded on ap­plic­a­tion if the con­di­tions for an in­put tax de­duc­tion un­der Art­icle 28 are not met and:

a.

the goods are re-ex­por­ted un­altered without pri­or han­dover to a third party as part of a sup­ply of goods on Swiss ter­rit­ory and without hav­ing been used earli­er; or

b.

the goods were used on Swiss ter­rit­ory, but are re-ex­por­ted as a res­ult of can­cel­la­tion of the sup­ply of goods; in this case the re­fund is re­duced by the amount that rep­res­ents the tax on the con­sid­er­a­tion for use of the goods or on the loss of value caused by use of the goods and on the non-re­fun­ded im­port cus­toms du­ties and du­ties based on non-cus­toms-based fed­er­al laws.

² The tax is re­fun­ded only if:

a.

the re-ex­port takes place with­in five years of the end of the cal­en­dar year in which the tax was im­posed; and

b.

the goods ex­por­ted are proven to be identic­al to those im­por­ted earli­er.

³ The re­fund may in a spe­cif­ic case be made de­pend­ent on prop­er de­clar­a­tion in the im­port state.

⁴ Ap­plic­a­tions for a re­fund must be sub­mit­ted on de­clar­a­tion for the ex­port pro­ced­ure. Sub­sequent re­fund ap­plic­a­tions may be con­sidered if they are sub­mit­ted in writ­ing to the FO­CBS with­in 60 days of is­sue of the ex­port doc­u­ment with which the goods were as­sessed un­der the ex­port pro­ced­ure (Art. 61 CustA¹⁴¹).