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Swiss compliance

Swiss VAT return step by step (effective method)

Published 2026-11-10 · 10 min read

Sources as of 28.10.2026. This article explains the Swiss VAT return; it is not tax advice. The VAT Act and the ESTV pages linked in each section are authoritative. The company and every amount in the example are invented.

When is the Swiss VAT return for Q3 2026 due?

The Swiss VAT return for the third quarter of 2026 (01.07. to 30.09.2026) and the payment are due within 60 days of the quarter end, which is 29.11.2026. That is the rule of Art. 71 para. 1 (the return) and Art. 86 para. 1 (the payment) of the VAT Act (MWSTG). The ESTV, the Swiss Federal Tax Administration, sends you no invoice: you file "unprompted" (ESTV: paying VAT).

The 29th of November 2026 is a Sunday. Monday may then count. The ESTV page does not say so, and this article does not rely on it. Plan to file and pay by Friday, 27.11.2026. If you need more time for the return, request an extension in the ePortal, but the payment stays due on 29.11.2026 (Art. 86 para. 1 MWSTG). If you pay late, you owe default interest without a reminder (Art. 87 para. 1 MWSTG).

Quarter, half-year or year: which reporting period applies?

With the effective method you file quarterly; with net tax rates (Saldosteuersätze) half-yearly (Art. 35 para. 1 MWSTG). The tax period itself is the calendar year (Art. 34 para. 2). The effective method is the default (Art. 36): you owe the output tax and the reverse-charge tax (Bezugsteuer) and deduct your input tax from them. The net tax rate method is open only to a business with at most CHF 5’024’000 taxable turnover a year and at most CHF 108’000 tax, computed at the applicable net tax rate (Art. 37 para. 1).

Since 01.01.2025 there are two more periods, both on application only (Art. 35 para. 1bis): monthly if you regularly have more input tax than tax, and annual with at most CHF 5’005’000 turnover from taxable supplies. Annual reporting is open to the effective method too. You apply in the ePortal within 60 days of the start of the tax period (the end of February), pay three instalments during the year and file the return by the end of February of the following year. With a net tax rate it is one instalment on 30.08. (ESTV: annual reporting).

Reporting on payments received (vereinnahmte Entgelte) is also available on application (Art. 39 para. 2). The default is agreed consideration, the invoice basis (para. 1): output tax arises with the invoice you issue, the input tax deduction with the invoice you receive (Art. 40 para. 1). The example below works that way.

Which Swiss VAT rates apply in 2026, and what could change in 2028?

Since 01.01.2024 the Swiss rates are 8.1 % (standard), 2.6 % (reduced, for example for food, medicines and books) and 3.8 % (special rate for accommodation), according to the ESTV and Art. 25 MWSTG. On the form they are boxes 303, 313 and 343. Boxes 302, 312 and 342, with the old rates of 7.7, 2.5 and 3.7 %, apply to supplies up to 31.12.2023.

On 29.11.2026, the day the Q3 deadline ends, Switzerland votes on a VAT increase to fund the 13th AHV pension: the standard rate from 8.1 to 8.5 %, accommodation from 3.8 to 4 %, the reduced rate unchanged at 2.6 %. The increase could take effect at the start of 2028 at the earliest (BSV). It changes nothing for your 2026 and 2027 returns.

How do you file the Swiss VAT return in the ePortal?

You file the Swiss VAT return online in the ESTV ePortal. Since 01.01.2025 that applies to every VAT-registered business, and paper forms can no longer be ordered (ESTV: filing VAT online). You sign in through the «myESTV» service, which you register for once with AGOV, the Swiss authorities’ login.

Then there are two routes. Either you type the amounts in box by box, or in «MWST-Abrechnung pro» you upload an XML file from your accounting software and then check the imported values. The file must follow the e-government standard eCH-0217, version 2.0.0; the ePortal no longer accepts other versions.

You pay by QR-bill or to the ESTV payment address, with your ESTV-ID or VAT number and the reason for payment in the message. The ESTV has moved from QR-IBAN and QR reference to an international IBAN with a SCOR reference (RF…). So take the details from your current payment slip.

How do you fill in the Swiss VAT return step by step?

You fill in the Swiss VAT return under the effective method in the same order every time, whatever software you use. The box numbers (Ziffern) come from the ESTV’s annual reconciliation form, which carries the same boxes as the quarterly return in the ePortal:

1. Close the quarter: every invoice issued and received in the three months is booked, and the bank accounts are reconciled.
2. Enter your total turnover in box 200, worldwide, including exports and exempt supplies.
3. Deduct what does not belong in the taxable turnover: exempt-with-credit supplies such as exports (220), supplies abroad (221), transfers under the notification procedure (225), exempt supplies not opted for taxation (230), discounts and rebates (235), miscellaneous (280). The sum is box 289, and what is left is the total taxable turnover in box 299.
4. Split the taxable turnover by rate: 8.1 % in box 303, 2.6 % in 313, 3.8 % in 343. Together the three add back up to 299. Services bought from abroad go in as reverse-charge tax in 383, and you deduct that tax again as input tax in 400 or 405, as far as you use the service for taxable supplies. The total tax is box 399.
5. Enter your input tax: on material and services (400), on investments and other operating expenses (405), plus subsequent input tax deduction (Einlageentsteuerung, 410), minus corrections and reductions (415, 420). The total is box 479.
6. Work out 399 minus 479. A positive amount is what you owe, in box 500; a negative one is your credit, in box 510.
7. Check 399 against the movement on your output VAT account and 479 against the input tax accounts. That way you find a difference before you file, not during an audit.
8. File the return in the ePortal and pay what you owe within 60 days of the quarter end.
9. Lock the quarter in your books so nobody posts into a period that has been filed.

What does a completed Swiss VAT return for Q3 2026 look like?

A completed Swiss VAT return for Q3 2026 is easiest to show with an example. The invented Velowerk Seldwyla GmbH repairs and sells bicycles, and it also sells coffee and pastries to take away. It uses the effective method on the invoice basis. In the third quarter of 2026 it has this turnover, every amount without VAT:

• Repairs and bicycles in Switzerland: CHF 120’000.00 at the standard rate of 8.1 %.
• Coffee and pastries to take away: CHF 8’500.00 at the reduced rate of 2.6 %.
• Bicycles for a dealer in Germany, delivered directly there: CHF 15’000.00, exempt with credit (Art. 23 para. 2 no. 1).
• Subletting a storage room: CHF 3’600.00, exempt without credit (Art. 21 para. 2 no. 21).

Its purchases, also without VAT: material and goods for resale for CHF 52’000.00 with 8.1 % VAT, coffee and baked goods for CHF 3’000.00 with 2.6 %, a workbench for CHF 6’000.00, and electricity and phone for CHF 2’500.00, both with 8.1 %. This is its return:

200  120’000.00 + 8’500.00 + 15’000.00 + 3’600.00   = 147’100.00
289  15’000.00 (220) + 3’600.00 (230)               =  18’600.00
299  147’100.00 − 18’600.00                         = 128’500.00

303  120’000.00 × 8.1 %                             =   9’720.00
313    8’500.00 × 2.6 %                             =     221.00
399  9’720.00 + 221.00                              =   9’941.00

400  52’000.00 × 8.1 % + 3’000.00 × 2.6 %           =   4’290.00
405   6’000.00 × 8.1 % + 2’500.00 × 8.1 %           =     688.50
479  4’290.00 + 688.50                              =   4’978.50

500  9’941.00 − 4’978.50                            =   4’962.50

Two lines are easy to get wrong. The export and the sublet go into box 200 first and are only then deducted in 220 and 230. Leaving them out entirely declares too small a total turnover. And costs that serve an exempt supply carry no input tax deduction (Art. 29 para. 1). We assume no invoice, and no share of overheads such as electricity, relates to the storage room, so there is nothing to correct in box 415.

Which input tax can you deduct?

You can deduct the input tax invoiced to you for your business activity, the reverse-charge tax you declared yourself, and import tax (Art. 28 para. 1 MWSTG). On the invoice basis, input tax counts in the quarter the invoice reaches you, not when you pay it (Art. 40 para. 1).

The form separates two kinds: box 400 for material and services, box 405 for investments and other operating expenses. In the example the material and the coffee go in 400, and the workbench, the electricity and the phone in 405. There is no deduction for costs that belong to exempt supplies (Art. 29 para. 1). If a cost serves both, you correct the share in box 415 (mixed use).

How does TILL compute the boxes?

TILL computes the VAT return from the posted journal lines and does not store it: every call computes it again, so the return cannot drift from the ledger. TILL is open-source accounting software for Swiss SMEs under MIT, built for working with AI agents over MCP (TILL for agents), and currently a public beta.

Every journal line with VAT carries a tax code, and every code knows its box: UST81 reports on 303, UST26 on 313, UST38 on 343, VST-M on 400, VST-I on 405, EXPORT0 on 220, AUSGENOMMEN on 230 and BEZUG on 383. The MCP verb vat_return gathers a period’s lines by box, builds 200, 289 and 299, adds up 399 and 479, and returns 500 or 510. It reads the tax per box from the booked VAT accounts (2200, 1170, 1171) instead of computing it again. For the example the answer looks like this:

{
  "ok": true,
  "method": "effektiv",
  "timing": "soll",
  "periodStart": "2026-07-01",
  "periodEnd": "2026-09-30",
  "lines": [
    { "code": "200", "baseMinor": 14710000, "taxMinor": 0 },
    …
    { "code": "299", "baseMinor": 12850000, "taxMinor": 0 },
    { "code": "303", "baseMinor": 12000000, "taxMinor": 972000 },
    …
  ],
  "totalTaxDueMinor": 994100,
  "totalInputTaxMinor": 497850,
  "payableMinor": 496250,
  "creditMinor": 0,
  "reconciled": true
}

On every computation TILL checks the total: box 399 must equal the quarter’s movement on the output VAT account 2200. If someone posted straight to 2200 without a tax code, the answer says reconciled: false. With vat_export_ech0217 TILL writes the eCH-0217 file for the ePortal. The file carries only the turnover per rate, and the ESTV computes the tax itself. So TILL recomputes it the same way first and reports any difference (taxCrossCheck). After you file, vat_mark_filed locks the three months.

An agent can therefore read the return and prepare the file. A person has to upload and confirm it: there is no publicly documented interface through which software submits a return to the ESTV. How TILL guards an agent’s postings is in MCP meets the ledger.

What does TILL not do for the VAT return?

For the VAT return TILL produces the figures and the file, but it files nothing and pays nothing. The beta also leaves these gaps open:

• It transmits nothing to the ESTV. The export’s answer says transmits: false, and the upload in the ePortal stays with you.
• It computes on the invoice basis only. For payments received, vat_return refuses to compute (ist_timing_not_implemented) rather than hand you a wrong figure.
• It knows quarters (effective) and half-years (net tax rate) only. Monthly and annual reporting under Art. 35 para. 1bis are not modelled.
• Some boxes it does not fill from the books: 205, 221, 225, 235, 280, the input tax corrections 410, 415 and 420, and 900 and 910. You enter those yourself.
• It does not pay. You send the payment to the ESTV from your e-banking.

And a return is only as good as the tax codes on the postings. What else TILL does for Swiss books is on the Swiss page.