Swiss VAT Tax Point (Steuerentstehung): When Your MWST Is Actually Due

The invoice leaves your desk on 20 March; the money lands on 20 May. Which quarter carries the MWST? The VAT Act needs just two articles to decide: Art. 39 and Art. 40 MWSTG fix the moment the turnover tax liability is constituted — the Steuerentstehung — and the Swiss default is your invoice, not your bank statement.[1]

The Swiss default: VAT follows your invoice

The law sets the form of reporting itself: the tax shall be reported based on the agreed consideration — in everyday practice the Abrechnung nach vereinbarten Entgelten.[1] Nothing in the default waits for the client to pay.

On that basis the turnover tax debt is incurred on invoicing.[1] The ESTV spells out what this means for the return: under agreed considerations, the Entgelt is declared in the period in which the delivered or future services were invoiced.[2]

The same clock runs on your purchase side: when reporting on agreed considerations, the right to make an input tax deduction is constituted at the time of receipt of the invoice.[1] A supplier invoice that arrives in December feeds the December return even if you pay it in February.

So a billed but unpaid invoice already counts — while a supply you never invoice at all falls back to the collection moment, because the Entgelt is declared in the period in which it was collected.[2] A client who never pays is a correction problem — never a licence to omit.

Deposits and partial invoices start the clock early

The default has carve-outs that pull the taxable moment forward. The turnover tax debt is incurred with the issue of a partial invoice or the collection of a partial payment when a supply gives rise to a series of partial invoices or partial payments, and with the collection of the consideration on advance payments.[1]

A 30 per cent Akonto that hits your account in December for work performed in January therefore carries December MWST. Deposits are turnover when they arrive — not when the service follows.

The same logic covers the Abschlagsrechnung: every instalment invoice in a series is its own tax event.[1] Split a project across quarters, and each instalment lands in the period in which you issue or collect it.

Plan deposits with that clock in mind: they accelerate tax as surely as they accelerate cash. A deposit schedule is, in effect, a VAT schedule.

The collected basis is the exception

The alternative is reporting on the basis of the consideration collected, which the FTA allows taxable persons on application.[1] On that basis the turnover tax liability is incurred on collection, and the input tax right is constituted at the time of payment.[1]

In ESTV practice this Vereinnahmungsbesteuerung requires a permit, and the tax debt arises in the moment the taxable person actually receives the consideration.[2]

The FTA can also impose the collected basis on its own motion — for example on businesses that receive considerations to a significant extent before the supply or the invoice.[1]

Whichever form applies, it must be retained for at least one tax period; quarter-to-quarter switching for cash-flow cosmetics is not an option.[1] Unless your registration letter says otherwise, you report on agreed considerations.

Corrections and clean periods

Corrections run on their own clock: if the recipient of the supply corrects paid or agreed considerations, the turnover tax liability must be adjusted at the time when the correction is booked or the corrected consideration is collected.[1] A Gutschrift belongs to the period of its booking, not to the original invoice.

Your books have to keep pace with that clock: business events are to be recorded chronologically and promptly after they occur, so the tax point stays auditable months later.[2]

Three habits keep the mechanism friendly: book every deposit at collection, date every partial invoice deliberately, and reconcile turnover per rate against the declared tax each quarter.

facturio dates every invoice and deposit, tracks paid and open amounts per period, and keeps the MWST-Abrechnung reconciled without a spreadsheet evening. Sources: [1] Federal Act on Value Added Tax (MWSTG), fedlex; [2] ESTV, MWST-Info 16 Buchführung und Rechnungsstellung.