From 1 January 2019 the new device-independent fee will be collected from households and businesses. It replaces the current device-dependent fee, which will be terminated at the end of 2018.

Fee liability

Businesses, which are subject to VAT in Switzerland and generate a global turnover of CHF 500,000 or more, are subject to the radio and television fee. This applies equally for domestic as well as for foreign domiciled businesses. Decisive is a business’ worldwide turnover, independent of the definition applicable under VAT rules; this also includes turn-over from supplies, which qualify as VAT exempt or zero-rated. Consequently, the assessment basis is the total turnover declared in cipher 200 of the VAT return less consideration reductions. For the application of group taxation, the total turnover of the VAT group is decisive.

A business becomes liable to the fee the year after the one in which it first exceeds the relevant turnover threshold. If a business generated an annual turnover of CHF 500,000 or more the previous year, it is liable to the fee in the following financial year. In the first year of the system change, i.e. 2019, the 2017 turnover is decisive.

A newly entered business is not subject to the fee in its first year in the VAT register. On the contrary, in the year of deregistration from the VAT register the full fee is payable.

Levying of the fee

The Swiss Federal Tax Administration (SFTA) will levy the corporate fee. Annual invoices are sent out by the SFTA between February and October as soon as all turnover data is available. During the first year of collection (2019), the first invoices will be sent out in January. The fee is payable within 60 days of billing. Liable businesses do not have to register separately for this corporate fee.

The corporate fee is fitted with a six-step, progressive tariff. The tariff categories are comprised as follows:

Fee groups

Businesses under a single management can form one corporate fee group. A corporate fee group consists of at least 30 businesses and is liable to pay the fee instead of its members. The total turnover of the individual group members is added together to assess fee liability and determine which tariff category is applicable. The VAT regulations for group taxation apply for joint liability, formation, changes in holdings, dissolution and representation. However, the group is valid only for the corporate fee liability.

Application for the Corporate Fee Group will be available online at FTA SuisseTax from autumn/winter 2018.

We remain gladly at your disposal in case you have any questions with regard to the corporate fee for radio and television. 

Tim Reck - Director, Indirect Tax

Tim is an Indirect Tax Director based in the Deloitte Zürich office. With over 18 years' experience, Tim is one of the most experienced technical experts known for his work on advising international VAT across the 28 Members of the EU and Switzerland. Tim oversees VAT planning and execution of Swiss based principals trading internationally, from the initial conception of the company through to designing the efficient supply chain, the associated compliance, and ERP implementation.  Tim is a Certified German Tax Accountant. The International Tax Review has listed Tim as an Indirect Tax Leader 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 for Switzerland.

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Tanja Blättler - Senior Manager, Indirect Tax

Tanja is a Senior Manager and VAT expert within Deloitte in Switzerland. She has 12 years of experience in VAT consulting and compliance management across all industries, with a focus on the real estate sector. She is a certified German tax expert and holds a Master in Swiss indirect taxes from the Swiss Advanced Technical College in Zurich.

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