Swiss parliament calls for more online purchases to be taxed

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Since 1 January 2019, companies abroad making more than CHF 100,000 in revenue must charge Swiss VAT on sales made to anyone in Switzerland.

Now the Swiss government has decided to take aim at online platforms such as Aliexpress and Wish, according to the broadcaster RTS.

Rather than chasing foreign companies selling products in Switzerland, Beat Vonlanthen, an MP from Fribourg, wants online platforms to charge and collect Swiss VAT on all items sold through them. This would mean all items bought via these platforms would incur VAT rather than only those sold by companies with global annual revenue of more than CHF 100,000.

Recently, a parliamentary majority voted in favour of Vonlanthen’s motion to put such a system in place. The MP estimates an extra CHF 100 million of VAT could be collected if all of the items bought via foreign online platforms were taxed.

In the five years from 2013, the number of small packages entering Switzerland went from 15 million to 33 million, according to the Swiss association of distance selling.