# Swiss VAT Calculator

> Add or remove Swiss MWST/TVA at the 8.1% Normalsatz, the 3.8% Beherbergungssatz for hotel nights, or the 2.6% reduced rate. All three rose on 1 January 2024, so an older invoice carries different figures.

Use it: https://tessalor.com/en/country/swiss-vat

This tool runs entirely in the browser. Nothing entered into it is uploaded.

## Formula

```
Adding VAT to a net amount:
  vat   = round(net x rate / 100)
  gross = net + vat

Removing VAT from a gross amount:
  vat = round(gross x rate / (100 + rate))
  net = gross - vat

Swiss rates and their VAT fractions:
  Normalsatz      8.1%   81/1081
  Beherbergung    3.8%    19/519
  Reduziert       2.6%    13/513
  Normalsatz to 2023   7.7%   77/1077

Not one of them reduces to anything you could
use on paper. That is normal; 20% giving one
sixth is the exception.

round = to the nearest centime, half up.

Only the VAT is rounded. The third figure is derived
from the other two, so net + vat = gross to the centime.
```

## Assumptions

- The three rates are those in force from 1 January 2024. The AHV 21 reform raised all of them at once — 7.7% to 8.1%, 3.7% to 3.8% and 2.5% to 2.6% — so an invoice from 2023 or earlier uses the older set and needs the rate typing in.
- Beherbergung is a rate for a supply, not a discount for a business. It covers overnight accommodation including breakfast, and the meals a hotel serves the rest of the day are at the Normalsatz.
- Rounding is half up to the centime with no option. The five-centime rounding a Swiss till does at the end is a cash-payment convention applied to the total, not a VAT rule, and this tool does not apply it.
- Figures are in Swiss francs because Swiss VAT is denominated in them. Nothing is converted and no exchange rate is applied anywhere.
- Liechtenstein applies these same rates under its customs treaty with Switzerland, but it is a separate tax authority with its own administration, and this tool does not model that relationship.

## Inputs

| Name | Label | Type | Default | Range |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `amount` | Amount | currency | 100 | 0 to 1000000000 |
| `direction` | What to do with it | select | add |  |
| `band` | Rate band | select | standard |  |
| `rate` | Another rate | percent | 7.7 | 0 to 100 |

## Outputs

- `vatAmount` — MWST (currency), primary
- `netAmount` — Netto (currency)
- `grossAmount` — Brutto (currency)
- `rateApplied` — Rate applied (percent)
- `fraction` — VAT fraction (text)

## Questions

### What are the Swiss VAT rates?

Three, and all three changed on 1 January 2024. The Normalsatz is 8.1% and applies to everything the law does not place elsewhere. The Beherbergungssatz is 3.8% and covers overnight accommodation including breakfast. The reduced rate is 2.6% and covers food and non-alcoholic drinks, books, newspapers, magazines, medicines, and seeds and cut flowers. Switzerland's standard rate remains among the lowest in Europe.

### Why did Swiss VAT go up in 2024?

To fund old-age insurance. The AHV 21 reform was approved by referendum in September 2022 and raised all three rates from 1 January 2024 — 7.7% to 8.1%, 3.7% to 3.8%, and 2.5% to 2.6%. Which rate applies is decided by when the supply was made rather than when it was invoiced, so a service delivered in December 2023 and billed in January 2024 stays on the old figures.

### Which rate applies to a hotel night?

The Beherbergungssatz of 3.8%, which covers the overnight stay including the breakfast served with it. It is a rate attached to a supply rather than a concession granted to hotels — dinner in the same hotel restaurant is at the Normalsatz of 8.1%, and so is a spa treatment or a conference room. An invoice covering several of those has to split them.

### Do I have to register for Swiss VAT?

Broadly, from CHF 100,000 of worldwide turnover from supplies that are not excluded from the tax. Foreign businesses supplying into Switzerland are caught by the same worldwide figure rather than by a Swiss-only one, which is a stricter test than most people expect and the reason many overseas sellers are registered here. The detail belongs with the ESTV.

### Is the five-centime rounding on my receipt part of the VAT?

No. Switzerland withdrew the one and two-centime coins, so cash totals are rounded to the nearest five centimes at the till. That happens to the amount payable, after the tax has been worked out, and it does not change the VAT declared. Card payments are not rounded at all. This tool computes to the centime and leaves the cash convention out.

## Sources

- [VAT rates in Switzerland](https://www.estv.admin.ch/estv/en/home/value-added-tax/vat-rates-switzerland.html) — Eidgenössische Steuerverwaltung (Federal Tax Administration), applies to 2026. Retrieved 2026-07-31.
- [Bundesgesetz über die Mehrwertsteuer (MWSTG), SR 641.20 — article 25](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2009/615/de) — Bundeskanzlei, via Fedlex, applies to 2026. Retrieved 2026-07-31.

## Variants

- [What VAT applies to a Swiss hotel night?](https://tessalor.com/en/country/swiss-vat/swiss-vat-on-a-hotel-night)
- [Why did Swiss VAT go up in January 2024?](https://tessalor.com/en/country/swiss-vat/why-swiss-vat-rose-in-2024)

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Estimate, not advice. See https://tessalor.com/en/disclaimer.
Machine-readable catalogue: https://tessalor.com/api/tools.json