Invoicing guide
Invoicing in Switzerland
VAT — how it works, what an invoice needs, and where the numbers come from.
Data as of 2026-07-19. Sources: www.estv.admin.ch (opens in new tab), www.fedlex.admin.ch (opens in new tab), www.zefix.ch (opens in new tab).
This is general guidance, not tax advice — verify with your tax authority.
The tax regime
Switzerland taxes most sales under a VAT system (regime type: vat). The document title Ochre prints is “Invoice.”
Tax registration number
The tax registration number for Switzerland is labelled UID / VAT number (CHE-...MWST) on an Ochre invoice.
Format: "CHE", then a hyphen ("-"), then 3 digits, then ".", then 3 digits, then ".", then 3 digits, then a space, then one of "MWST"; "TVA"; or "IVA".
Registration & thresholds
100,000 CHF — CHF 100,000 annual turnover from taxable domestic supplies, for both resident and foreign (non-established) businesses. Foreign businesses count worldwide taxable turnover. Register within ~30 days of exceeding (day-count MED-confidence).
Rates
| Standard (8.1%) | 8.1% |
|---|---|
| Reduced (2.6%) | 2.6% |
| Accommodation (3.8%) | 3.8% |
| Zero-rated (0%) | 0% |
| Exempt | 0% |
| Out of scope | 0% |
Rates shown above are for Domestic supply; this pack also defines Export for cross-border or special-case supplies.
Price display
Ochre's default for Switzerland is tax-exclusive pricing on a line item.
For consumer-facing (B2C) prices, the displayed price must include tax.
Rounding
Tax is rounded half up, applied once for the invoice total, to a precision of 0.01.
Mandatory invoice fields
- Seller's tax registration number
- Sequential invoice number
- Issue date
- Tax broken down by rate
Fiscal year & dates
The fiscal year starts January 1. Dates print in DD.MM.YYYY order.
Currency
CHF (CHF), shown to 2 decimal places.
E-invoicing
No private-sector e-invoicing mandate. Switzerland runs federal-government e-invoicing initiatives only. Advisory only.