Swiss VAT increase 2028 to 8.5%: what your shop, ERP and invoicing software need to change

The vote concerns the Federal Decree of 19 June 2026 on additional financing for the AHV (old-age and survivors' insurance) through an increase in VAT. It amends Article 130 of the Federal Constitution: the standard rate rises by 0.4 percentage points and the special rate for accommodation by 0.2 percentage points. The reduced rate, for example for food, medicines, books and newspapers, stays the same. All of the additional revenue goes to the AHV compensation fund.

Because the Constitution is being amended, the proposal needs a majority of both the people and the cantons. The decree contains no time limit. The Federal Council decides when it enters into force. According to the Federal Social Insurance Office, this can happen at the beginning of 2028 at the earliest.

For your business, this means you will have a little over a year after the vote. That is enough if you find out early which systems know about prices and tax rates.

The exact timeline depends on when the Federal Council brings the increase into force. Plan for the earliest date:

What counts is the time or period in which you make the supply. The invoice date and payment date do not matter. This is set out in Article 115 of the Swiss VAT Act, and it is how the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (ESTV) explained the last increase on 1 January 2024 in its VAT Info 19. The ESTV will publish its own guidance for 2028. We expect the principles to stay the same.

The key rules from 2024, applied to 2028:

Almost every system that creates prices or invoices knows the tax rate. In many SMEs, that is more systems than you might think at first: online shop, ERP or accounting, point of sale, invoice templates, a subscription tool and the interfaces between them.

The most important principle applies to all of them: do not overwrite the old tax rate, create a new one with a valid-from date instead. This is the only way to still invoice 2027 supplies correctly in 2028.

No, there is no obligation to raise prices. The only requirement is that the price shown to consumers includes VAT. If you keep the gross price, you absorb the increase yourself.

A worked example: an item costs CHF 49.90 today, including 8.1% VAT. You keep CHF 46.16 net. If you keep the price at 8.5%, you keep CHF 45.99, which is CHF 0.17 less per item. On CHF 100,000 of gross sales, that is around CHF 341 less net revenue. To earn the same net amount, the item would have to cost CHF 50.10, rounded to 5 centimes.

Since CHF 50.10 is not an attractive price point, a decision per product range pays off: keep price points such as CHF 49.90 and recalculate and round other prices. For your systems, this means: if you keep prices, you need stored gross prices or adjusted net prices. If you raise them, you need a rounding rule to avoid odd prices.

If you use the net tax rate method, these rates also change with an increase. In 2024, 8 of the 10 net tax rates went up, for example from 6.5% to 6.8%. Supplies up to the effective date are declared at the old net tax rate, supplies from the effective date at the new one. At the same time, the thresholds for the method were adjusted: since 2024, a maximum of CHF 5,024,000 turnover and CHF 108,000 tax per year. The rate change did not allow an early switch of accounting method.

For your software, this means your accounting also needs the new net tax rate with a valid-from date. On invoices to customers, you continue to show the statutory rate, so 8.5% instead of 8.1% from the effective date.

It is expected to. Liechtenstein forms a common VAT area with Switzerland. In the VAT treaty of 28 October 1994, Liechtenstein committed to adopting Swiss VAT law and its amendments into national law in parallel. The new rates do not apply automatically, however: the Liechtenstein parliament has to amend the national VAT Act. For the last increase on 1 January 2024, it did so in parallel with Switzerland.

Businesses in Liechtenstein can therefore expect the same rules and the same effective date. According to our research, the Liechtenstein parliament had not yet decided on the 2028 increase as of 5 November 2026. Because supplies between Liechtenstein and Switzerland count as domestic supplies for VAT, the switch also affects your invoices to customers in Switzerland.

We see these issues again and again when rates change. This is not a statistic but our experience from projects involving shops, ERP systems and interfaces:

Go through these points after the vote, and by autumn 2027 at the latest:

Standard ERP, accounting and POS software usually receives the new rates through an update. With custom software, a custom-built shop or a self-built interface, nobody is automatically responsible. You should have it checked whether the rate is hard-coded, whether the software knows the supply date and tax code, and whether the interface passes on new codes.

If the rate is stored in one central place with a valid-from date, the switch is a setting. If it is hard-coded in several places, allow one to three working days for changes and testing as a guideline. At CHF 70 per hour, that is around CHF 560 to 1,680. This is our estimate, and the actual effort depends on the system.

To learn how shop and ERP interfaces are built and what they cost, read our guide "ERP integration: how much does it cost to connect your online shop and ERP?".