Selling Between Switzerland and the EU: VAT, Customs and Packaging

Selling across the Swiss-EU border runs on two different rulebooks depending on which way the parcel moves. A store in the EU shipping into Switzerland has to watch the Swiss mail-order VAT threshold. A Swiss store shipping into the EU is, for VAT purposes, a seller in a "third country" — Switzerland isn't in the EU's VAT area at all, so the EU mechanisms built for intra-EU trade, like the regular One Stop Shop, don't apply to it the same way.

This article works through both directions: what a foreign seller owes once it crosses the Swiss mail-order threshold, what a Swiss seller faces shipping low-value parcels into the EU under the Import One Stop Shop, and the packaging-registration duties that apply to a Swiss seller in the EU exactly as they would to anyone else. We close with Swiss VAT rates, shipping prices and what card payments actually cost.

The legal basis is the Swiss VAT Act (MWSTG, SR 641.20) and its ordinance (MWSTV), together with the EU regulations cited where they apply to the EU side of a shipment. This is a summary of the law, not tax advice — have your specific case checked by a Swiss tax adviser or customs broker before your first cross-border shipment.

Selling into Switzerland: the CHF 100,000 mail-order threshold

A foreign online store shipping small parcels into Switzerland is, by default, outside the Swiss VAT net — until it crosses a specific turnover figure.

Under MWSTG Article 7(3)(b) and MWSTV Article 4a, if a domestic or foreign mail-order company generates at least CHF 100,000 in annual turnover from small consignments, its deliveries are deemed domestic supplies, taxable in Switzerland, and it must register in the Swiss VAT register. Registration applies from the month after the threshold is reached — a different rule from the EU's "from the transaction that crossed it," worth noting if you're used to the EU rule.

Below that threshold, individual small parcels can still be exempt from Swiss import tax outright. SR 641.204, Article 1(d) exempts goods from import tax where "the tax amount per assessment is no more than CHF 5" — in practice, a de minimis rule for low-value consignments, similar in spirit to (but numerically unrelated to) the EU's IOSS ceiling.

Since 1 January 2025, under the new MWSTG Article 20a, a marketplace that facilitates a sale into Switzerland can itself be deemed the supplier for VAT purposes with respect to the buyer — meaning the platform, not the individual seller on it, carries the VAT obligation on that sale. If you sell into Switzerland through a marketplace rather than your own store, check whether the platform already handles this for you.

Selling into the EU: Switzerland is a third country

Reverse the direction, and Switzerland sits outside the EU's VAT system entirely — which means the EU's regular One Stop Shop (Union scheme), built for sellers established inside the EU, isn't the natural fit for a Swiss store. The mechanism that is directly relevant is the EU's Import One Stop Shop (IOSS): it covers goods imported from outside the EU and shipped to EU consumers in consignments "not exceeding… the equivalent of EUR 150," excluding excise goods.

Above that EUR 150 ceiling, a shipment from Switzerland into the EU follows ordinary EU import procedures instead — customs declaration and import VAT at the border, broadly speaking. We did not find a confirmed, sourced breakdown of the exact duty rates or customs-declaration mechanics for CH-to-EU shipments in the course of researching this article, so we're not giving figures here; check the applicable tariff and procedure with a customs broker or freight forwarder before you price a cross-border offer above that threshold. Equally, the precise registration path for a Swiss business wanting to use IOSS itself — whether it needs an EU-established intermediary, and through which member state — wasn't confirmed in the sources checked for this article. Treat this as a mechanism to investigate with a VAT adviser familiar with both systems, not as a settled procedure.

Packaging registration applies to a Swiss seller too

This is the one area where the obligation doesn't care where you, the seller, are based — only where the packaging first reaches a consumer. The EU's new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR, Regulation (EU) 2025/40), applicable from 12 August 2026, defines a "producer" to include an entity that makes packaging or a packaged product available to end users in a member state for the first time, "irrespective of the selling technique used, including by means of distance contracts" (Article 3(1)(15)(c)-(d)). A Swiss store shipping directly to a German or French consumer falls squarely inside that definition.

In Germany specifically, the Verpackungsrecht-Durchführungsgesetz (VerpackDG), which replaced VerpackG on 12 August 2026, requires a producer without a German establishment to appoint a representative for extended producer responsibility before its first sale, in writing and in German (§ 5(2), (4)) — this applies to a Swiss seller exactly as it would to any other seller without a German branch. Registration with LUCID (§ 6(1)) and participation in a collection scheme for packaging reaching private households (§ 7(1)) follow from there, with penalties up to EUR 200,000 for not joining a collection scheme and EUR 100,000 for not registering (§ 66(3)).

In France, the Triman mark, sorting information, and a unique producer identifier (IDU) obtained through an eco-organisme (not directly from the state) apply the same way — a Swiss seller shipping into France needs an IDU just as any other foreign seller would.

If you sell through an EU marketplace rather than, or alongside, your own Swiss store, note that both PPWR (Article 45(4)) and the German and French regimes push marketplaces to check a seller's packaging-registration status before letting them sell — so expect to be asked for proof.

Swiss VAT, for the Swiss side of a sale

MWSTG Article 25 sets the Swiss standard VAT rate at 8.1% and a reduced rate of 2.6%, both in force since 1 January 2024. This applies to domestic Swiss sales and to foreign mail-order sales once the CHF 100,000 threshold above is crossed; it has no bearing on what a Swiss seller charges an EU customer, where the EU's own VAT rules (and, below EUR 150, IOSS) apply instead.

How big is the market on each side

Handelsverband.swiss, with NIQ/GfK and Swiss Post ("Onlinehandelsmarkt Schweiz 2025"): Swiss consumers bought CHF 15.8 billion of goods online in 2025, up from CHF 14.9 billion in 2024 — a 6% increase. Notably, foreign purchases grew faster (+8%) than domestic ones (+6%), after +18% in 2024, with Digitec Galaxus named as the market's "big winner" for the year.

On the consumer side, Eurostat's isoc_ec_ib20 series, using Swiss data from BFS, found that 85.5% of Swiss individuals aged 16–74 bought online in the last 12 months in 2025, up from 83.4% in 2023, and among internet users the figure reaches 86.26% — comfortably ahead of the equivalent EU27 figure (73.56%, same series, 2025). There's no equivalent Swiss breakdown of what share of that spending crosses the border into or out of the EU specifically; the Handelsverband domestic/foreign split above is the closest confirmed figure.

Shipping and payments

Shipping

Swiss Post's business prices, valid from 1 January 2026, are VAT-inclusive. For domestic parcels, PostPac Priority/Economy runs from CHF 10.50 / CHF 9 up to 2 kg, to CHF 22.50 / CHF 21 up to 30 kg, with bulky goods at CHF 32.50 / CHF 31; a volume-based sales discount applies from 2% at CHF 500 of monthly revenue (excl. VAT) up to 8% at CHF 2,000. These are domestic Swiss rates — we did not find a sourced, published Swiss Post tariff specifically for CH-to-EU cross-border parcels in researching this article, so no cross-border parcel price is given here; check current international rates directly with Swiss Post or a freight forwarder before pricing a cross-border shipping option.

Payments

Current CHF rates (read 30 September 2026):

• Stripe Switzerland (pricing): a Swiss card costs 2.9% + CHF 0.30; international cards 3.25% + CHF 0.30, plus 2% for currency conversion. TWINT costs 1.9% + CHF 0.30 through Stripe's local payment methods.
• Shopify Payments Switzerland: on the Basic plan, standard online cards run 2.95% + CHF 0.30; TWINT is notably cheaper, at 1.75% + CHF 0.30 on the same plan.
• PostFinance Checkout: the "All-in-One" tier, aimed at turnover up to CHF 200,000, costs CHF 199 one-off plus CHF 14.90/month, with transactions at "2.5%, at least CHF 0.20." Above CHF 200,000 turnover, the "E-Com Bundle" tier drops to CHF 19.90/month with PostFinance Pay and TWINT at 1.3%, Visa/Mastercard at 1.55% (each min. CHF 0.20), plus a CHF 0.18 per-transaction PSP fee.

A worked example (Stripe Switzerland rates): a CHF 400 order paid by a domestic Swiss card costs 2.9% × CHF 400 + CHF 0.30 = CHF 11.90. The same order paid by an international card needing currency conversion costs 3.25% × CHF 400 + CHF 0.30 = CHF 13.30, plus 2% × CHF 400 = CHF 8.00 — CHF 21.30 total, nearly double. If you're selling into the EU and settling in EUR, that currency-conversion step applies on every cross-border payment, not just occasional ones.

Current rates for all methods, including TWINT and PostFinance in full, are compared in our payment gateway fees article, and payment methods and their risk in our online payment methods article.

Checklist before selling across the Swiss-EU border

1. Selling into Switzerland: track your turnover from small consignments against the CHF 100,000 mail-order threshold; register for Swiss VAT from the month after you cross it (MWSTG Art. 7(3)(b)).
2. Selling into the EU: for consignments up to EUR 150, look at IOSS; above that, talk to a customs broker about duty and import-VAT procedure before you commit to a price.
3. Register your packaging wherever you ship directly to EU consumers — LUCID and a representative in Germany, an IDU through an eco-organisme in France — even though you're a Swiss company.
4. Check whether your marketplace already handles Swiss VAT under the platform-taxation rule (MWSTG Art. 20a) if you sell into Switzerland through one.
5. Price the currency-conversion step into every cross-border card payment, not just the processing fee.
6. Confirm current cross-border shipping tariffs directly with your carrier — we found reliable published figures for Swiss Post's domestic prices, not for CH-EU cross-border parcels.

For Swiss marketplace integration specifically, see our marketplace integration article. Returns and complaints — a different topic from VAT, since Switzerland has no statutory right of withdrawal at all — are covered in our returns in Switzerland article. Other logistics topics are in our logistics: carriers and pick-up points article and our payments and logistics overview; overall store-running costs are in what does an online store cost, and you can add your own figures in our e-commerce TCO calculator.

Sources

Swiss VAT Act (MWSTG, SR 641.20)

ESTV — VAT rates in Switzerland

ESTV — VAT, mail-order trade and platform taxation

ESTV — VAT registration for platform operators

SR 641.204 — import tax de minimis, Article 1(d)

Regulation (EU) 2025/40 — Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR)

Verpackungsrecht-Durchführungsgesetz (VerpackDG)

EU Commission — One Stop Shop (OSS) and Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) portal

Handelsverband.swiss, with NIQ/GfK and Swiss Post — Onlinehandelsmarkt Schweiz 2025

Swiss Post — business parcel prices, valid from 1 January 2026