On June 16, 2023, the Swiss Parliament adopted the amendment to the VAT Act which will introduce the deemed supplier rules for online marketplaces.

These new proposals will follow in line with the current EU rules which were imposed in July 2021. Their aim is try to avoid any disparity between Swiss established providers and non-resident e-commerce sellers operating in Switzerland as currently there is still a large amount of tax evasion, in this area.

Under the proposed new regulations, online marketplaces would be treated as the supplier of such goods. Consequently, from a VAT perspective, e-commerce suppliers are deemed to make a VAT-exempt sale to the online marketplace and the online marketplace is deemed to sell the products to the final consumer. This means the online marketplace will need to account for and pay the VAT on all such supplies of goods that they facilitate.

The changes are scheduled to enter into force from January 1, 2025.

Should you have any questions on how these new rules may impact your business, please feel free to contact a member of our VAT consultancy team for further information.