New VAT Registration Number in Switzerland

From 1.1.2011, Switzerland will enforce a new Tax Number called UID (Unternehmens-Identifikationsnummer). Authorities will assign new tax numbers to all new tax persons instead of old 6-digit VAT Registration Number. Existing tax persons will be informed of their new tax number in the first semester of 2011. During the period from 2011 – 2013 both old and new VAT Registration Numbers can be used. In first quarter of 2011 we expect further communication from Swiss authorities on potential changes in VAT Reporting related to this change.

Currently in the Swiss version of NAV 5.0 SP1 and NAV 2009 SP1 (and R2) we store tax number in the VAT Registration field in Company Information and in the UID field in the Payroll module. Keep in mind you will need to change VAT Registration Numbers for all your Swiss Customers, Vendors and Contacts.

Some information on new tax Numbers:

  • The new tax number is a unique number to identify a company
  • It will replace all other existing numbers to reduce administration
  • The new number format is CHE 123.456.789 MWST starting with CHE to identify it as Swiss number, followed by 9 numbers and MWST. Depending on which part of Switzerland this extension will change as follows:
    • German part: MWST
    • French part: TVA
    • Italian part: IVA

We recommend you update the VAT Registration No Formats (Administration-> Application Setup -> General -> Countries/Regions) for country CH (Switzerland) with the following entries:

  • CHE#########MWST
  • CHE#########TVA
  • CHE#########IVA
  • CHE ###.###.### MWST
  • CHE ###.###.### TVA
  • CHE ###.###.### IVA

Ivan Koletic