For many wine businesses, VAT is the obligation that eats the most time: four or two times a year, turnover, tax and input tax have to go onto the form of the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (ESTV). This guide explains the rules that apply to wine, the choice between the two settlement methods, and how Vinosoft builds the return from the invoices you write anyway.
Which rate applies to wine
Since 1 January 2024 Switzerland has three rates: 8.1% as the standard rate, 2.6% as the reduced rate for food and other everyday goods, and 3.8% for accommodation.
Wine is a foodstuff, but alcoholic beverages are expressly excluded from the reduced rate. Wine, sparkling wine, beer and spirits therefore carry the standard rate of 8.1%. In practice, for your business:
What you sell | Rate |
|---|---|
Wine, sparkling wine, spirits | 8.1% |
Non-alcoholic grape juice, grapes, jam, cheese to take away | 2.6% |
Food and wine in your own restaurant or at an event | 8.1% |
A night in the guest room at the winery | 3.8% |
Delivery abroad with proof of export | exempt (0%) |
When a wine business is liable for VAT
You become liable once you earn at least CHF 100,000 a year from taxable supplies. Wine-growing businesses have a particular rule: agricultural produce from your own farm, such as grapes you sell, counts as primary production and is not part of taxable turnover. If you press the grapes into wine yourself and sell the wine, those sales are generally taxable. Where the line falls for your business, check the ESTV's VAT sector information on primary production and related areas, or ask your accountant.
The effective method or the net tax rate
Taxable businesses settle under one of two methods:
- Effective method. You owe tax on your sales and deduct the input tax you paid on purchases: bottles, corks, labels, machinery, services. You settle every quarter.
- Net tax rate method (Saldosteuersatz). You multiply turnover by a lower sector rate set by the ESTV. Input tax is not deducted item by item; it is built into the rate. You settle every six months. The method is open to businesses up to a turnover and tax limit set by the ESTV.
The net tax rate saves work, but it pays off mainly when you invest little. If you buy a new press or a tank in a given year, the effective method often costs you less, because you get the input tax on it back. You can only switch methods at certain points, so work through the choice with your accountant.
Whichever method you use, you also choose whether to settle on agreed consideration — the tax arises with the invoice — or on received consideration — the tax arises only when the money comes in. For businesses whose customers pay late, the second option eases cash flow.
How Vinosoft builds the return
With financial accounting (Professional and Enterprise editions), every invoice, credit note, payment and supplier invoice books into the journal with its tax code. You set the method and the basis under Configuration → General → Master data in the VAT billing type field: agreed or received, effective or net tax rate. That determines the period, quarter or half-year.
- Under Finance → Tax report, pick the period and create the report. It is generated in the background.
- On screen you see the return in the layout of the ESTV form, box by box: turnover, exempt supplies, tax due, input tax and the amount you owe or get back. Each box opens the Tax journal with the bookings it came from.
- For your accountant, download the bookings per box as Excel.
- When everything adds up, close the report. It stays archived with its PDF and figures, and the next period starts where this one ended.
You then transfer the figures into the ESTV ePortal. Vinosoft does not file the return electronically. The deadline is 60 days after the end of the period.
What to check in Vinosoft
- Tax codes and boxes. Under Finance → Tax, each rate is assigned to a box on the form. Before your first return, check that the current rates sit on the boxes for the rates from 2024: 8.1% on box 303, 2.6% on 313 and 3.8% on 343.
- Tax code on the article. Wine carries the standard rate, non-alcoholic grape juice the reduced one. Each price of an article has its own tax code; Vinosoft converts between net and gross prices.
- Customers abroad. For deliveries abroad, set an exempt tax code on the customer. Vinosoft does not pick it by country on its own.
- Supplier invoices. If you record supplier invoices with a tax code, the input tax flows into boxes 400 and 405. Under the net tax rate method that step falls away.
What Vinosoft does not cover
Vinosoft does not submit the return to the ESTV and offers no export to Bexio, Abacus or Banana; you export the journal as CSV. Annual settlement, possible since 2025, is not a period of its own in Vinosoft. And Vinosoft does not calculate the alcohol tax due on spirits.
As of October 2026. The Swiss VAT Act and the ESTV's publications are authoritative. This guide is not a substitute for tax or accounting advice.
