Consignments to and from foreign countries must be declared to us. In the case of postal and courier traffic, the transporter, e.g. DHL, UPS or Swiss Post, takes care of this so-called customs declaration. Based on the declaration, the relevant customs authority calculates the applicable customs duty and value added tax. Transporters charge on a time and material basis for their customs clearance service. The duties and tax payable to the state and the costs of the transporter in question are billed to the recipient together. Further details:
Importation into Switzerland
Retrieval of an electronic assessment decision with access code
Each customs declaration is attributed a unique access code. The carrier then informs the importer of the customs declaration number (same number as assessment decision) and the corresponding access code. The importer can obtain the electronic assessment decision via the website indicated below, without being registered with us. Obtaining the electronic assessment decision with the access code works only for single queries: mass queries are not possible.
Exportation from Switzerland
This explains how Swiss VAT can be refunded and what also needs to be noted.
