Prepare and file the VAT return

To Bill calculates your VAT return from your books: every invoice, credit note, expense and entry with a VAT code is already in it. You check it in four steps, you upload it to the portal of the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA), then you mark it as filed.

Before you start

• Your VAT settings must be up to date: VAT number, method, frequency. See Set up your company’s VAT.
• You need the right to manage the books to file a return.
• First post everything that concerns the period: invoices sent, expenses, bank statements.

Experimental feature

Accounting is still in development. Have your fiduciary review your returns before you file them.

Your periods and their deadlines

Open Accounting › VAT. The Returns tab shows the Next VAT return at the top: the period to prepare and the date by which to file and pay. Click Prepare the return (1).

Below are all your periods, by year. The Period, year… field and the Year and Status filters find a period; Views offers To file and Filed. Each period shows its status:

Status	What it means
In progress until …	The period is not over.
To prepare · due in … days	The period is over; the deadline is more than 15 days away.
Due in … days	The deadline is 15 days away or less.
Due today	The deadline is today.
Overdue by … days	The deadline has passed.
Filed · locked	The return is filed and the period locked. The amount paid or refunded is shown.
Filed outside To Bill	You filed this return without To Bill.

The deadline falls 60 days after the end of the period, for example on 29 November for the third quarter. The return and the payment are both due on that date.

Step 1: check

The return opens at the Check step: the list of what it rests on. Each check has a badge.

• To fix: the return cannot be filed until this point is settled.
• To check: nothing blocks, but take a close look.
• Note: information, for example a late document declared in this period.
• In order: nothing to do.

Click Show to see the documents concerned, then Fix: To Bill opens the place where the point is settled, for example the journal or the bank.

Classify a 0% line

A sale without VAT must say why it is exempt: that decides the box of the form in which it is deducted. Until it does, the Every 0% line has its VAT type check is To fix.

1. Under the check, click Classify (1) next to the document. Its page opens at the 0% VAT lines panel.

2. For each line, choose the VAT type.

3. Click Save. The panel then says: Each line names the box of the return it is deducted in.

   

VAT type	When to choose it	Box
Exempt – export (art. 23)	Goods exported, or another exempt supply.	220
Supply abroad	The place of supply is outside Switzerland, for example a service to a business established abroad.	221
Notification procedure (art. 38)	A transfer of assets without VAT, notified with form 764.	225
Excluded – no input tax deduction (art. 21)	Healthcare, education, letting of real estate, insurance… without opting for taxation.	230
Other deduction (box 280)	For example the value of land, or the purchase price under margin taxation.	280
Outside the scope of VAT (disbursements)	Costs paid in the client’s name and on the client’s behalf.	none

The amount does not change, only the box. If the invoice was already posted, its entry is reversed and posted again with these codes: the journal keeps a record of both.

The box 299 check

An unclassified 0% line also upsets the Box 299 equals the turnover of the rate boxes check. It goes back to In order as soon as the line is classified.

When nothing is left To fix, click Continue.

Step 2: reconciliation

The Reconcile step sets each box of the return next to the sum of the entries that make it up. A green tick shows that they are equal.

• Click an underlined amount to see the box’s entries. The J and K keys move to the next or previous box.
• Export all lines downloads the detail as CSV, for your fiduciary.

The only normal difference: the VAT posted and the VAT the form calculates (turnover × rate) can differ by a few cents of rounding. Any other difference is abnormal: do not file the return, and talk to your fiduciary.

Step 3: the form

The Form step presents the return like the FTA’s official form: form 0550 with the effective method, form 0536 with the net tax rate method. The figures are the ones you will find on the FTA portal.

• The FR, DE and IT buttons show the form in the language of your choice.
• In the Simple display, a sentence under each box says what it is about.

Step 4: finalise

The Finalise step brings together what is left to do. The Before filing card checks four conditions: the period is over, the previous periods are filed, the checks pass and the VAT number is filled in. On the right is the amount To pay to the FTA (box 500) or The FTA refunds you (box 510).

1. Import the file on the FTA Portal. Click Download the eCH-0217 file, then import it into the VAT return service on the FTA Portal (“MWST-Abrechnung pro” in German), and submit the return. Open the FTA Portal opens the portal in a new tab. The details: Upload the VAT return to the FTA Portal.

2. Note the payment reference (optional). Copy into FTA payment reference the reference the portal shows after you submit. Bank reconciliation will then recognise your payment.

3. Mark as filed. Once the return is submitted, click Mark as filed and lock (1), then confirm with File and lock.

   

To Bill then freezes the return as it is, posts the settlement entry (the VAT accounts are cleared against account 2201, VAT settlement) and locks the period.

Already filed without To Bill?

If you filed this return another way, click Mark as already filed in the Already filed with the FTA outside To Bill? card. The period is settled in your books and locked, and no longer shows as overdue. You can include the previous periods not yet filed.

After filing

The period shows Filed on …. There you find:

• eCH-0217 file as filed (1), the exact file of this return;
• the settlement entry, with Open in the journal;
• the payment: Payment not reconciled yet as long as the transfer to the FTA is not reconciled in the bank, then Paid on ….

A document that arrives after filing

A filed period is locked: a manual entry with VAT dated in it is refused. An invoice, credit note or expense dated in that period but entered afterwards keeps its date; its VAT is declared in the next open return of the same year. The Check step of that return says so: 1 document of a filed period is declared here.

If no period of the year is open yet, the document stays in the filed period: declare it with a correction return or in the annual reconciliation.

Correct a filed return

1. Open the filed period, at the Finalise step.
2. In Correct this return, click Compare with the books. To Bill shows the boxes that differ between your books and the return as filed, or The books match the return as filed: nothing to correct.
3. If there are differences, click File the correction. The difference is posted the same day.
4. Download its file with the XML button and upload it to the FTA portal as a correction return.

A return can be corrected up to five years back. A period Filed outside To Bill is corrected directly on the FTA portal.

The annual reconciliation

Once the year’s accounts are closed, compare what you declared with what your books say. Open the Annual reconciliation tab and choose the year.

• For each period, the table compares the amount Declared (net) and the Books today (net).
• When the year is over and all its periods are filed, three cards reconcile the whole year: the Turnover posted, the VAT due and the Input tax. Each explained difference is listed; a difference marked Not explained must be cleared up with your fiduciary.
• If there are differences, click File the annual reconciliation, then download the eCH-0217 file and upload it to the FTA portal.

Only once a year

The annual reconciliation declares only the differences, and cannot be corrected afterwards. With no difference, there is nothing to file.

The deadline: errors found when closing the accounts are corrected at the latest in the return for the period in which the 180th day after the end of the financial year falls. For a financial year ending on 31 December, the 180th day falls at the end of June: that is the return for the second quarter, or the first half-year, of the following year. If the FTA receives no correction within 240 days of the end of the financial year, it treats your returns for the year as complete and correct.

Pay the VAT

Pay the amount due within the same 60 days, with the payment details shown on the FTA portal. A late payment bears default interest, without a reminder. When the transfer appears on your statement, reconcile it: the period changes to Paid on ….

Legal basis

• The return is filed and the tax paid within 60 days of the end of the period: Art. 71 para. 1 and Art. 86 para. 1 VAT Act. Default interest is due without a reminder in case of delay: Art. 87 VAT Act.
• Errors found when preparing the annual accounts are corrected at the latest in the return for the period in which the 180th day after the end of the financial year falls; older errors, as long as the tax claim is neither final nor time-barred: Art. 72 VAT Act. The form: Annual VAT reconciliation and VAT adjustment statement, FTA.
• The place of supply of services is, as a rule, where the recipient has their place of business: Art. 8 para. 1 VAT Act. Supplies excluded from the tax: Art. 21 VAT Act. Supplies exempt from the tax: Art. 23 VAT Act.
• The books cannot be changed without the change being visible: Art. 3 GeBüV, the Ordinance on the Keeping and Retention of Accounting Records (German version: fedlex has no English one).