Companies liable for VAT have a choice between two accounting methods in Switzerland: the effective accounting and the net tax rate method. Which method is more suitable for your company is a question best settled with your fiduciary or tax expert – there is no standard answer here and various individual factors must be taken into consideration.
If you opt for the net tax rate method and you application has been approved by the Federal Tax Administration (FTA), you must take the following into account in your work with KLARA:
- Before you undertake any postings in KLARA, you must check the settings with regard to VAT. This is important, because once you have entered this information you can no longer change it retrospectively.
You will find the information in the menu item “Company” – “VAT”.
By clicking on the pencil icon, you can alter the information. Example: If
the FTA has given your company two net tax rates (SSS1= 2.0%, SSS2=5.9%) and if your company renders its accounts according to the agreed accounting approach, the table would have to be completed as follows:
- By using the net tax rate method, the input tax is not calculated. This means that, when posting supplier invoices in the normal case, you select the VAT case “Purchase inland (without VAT)”. The only exception form this is the procurement of services from abroad. With these bookings you select the VAT case “Import with purchase tax“ (Note: Does not apply for the delivery of goods with customs duty, for example).
- If you use the order management system of KLARA for your customer invoices/receivables (debtors), you always state the articles that are liable for the net tax rate. KLARA then automatically carries out the posting with the correct VAT rate. Important: The effective tax rates are shown on your customers’ invoices irrespective of the net tax rate method.
- If you create your customer invoices with a Word template or another type of software and you post the invoices via the postings workflow, you must always state which net tax rate is being used.
You will find further information on the net tax rate method here (only available in German, Italian or French): https://www.estv.admin.ch/estv/de/home/mehrwertsteuer/fachinformationen/saldo--und-pauschalsteuersaetze.html