VAT obligations for foreign sportsmen in Switzerland

Since 2018, the threshold for mandatory VAT registration is determined according to worldwide sales, not only sales in Switzerland. For this reason, sports competitors and sports clubs located outside of Switzerland have to register for Swiss VAT if they receive appearance fees or prize money for competitions in Switzerland and have worldwide sales of CHF 100,000 or more (CHF 150,000 for non-profit and voluntarily administered sports clubs). Foreign organisations liable for Swiss VAT are required to have a tax representative with a domicile in Switzerland. They must also provide security when they are entered in the Swiss VAT register. The security amounts to 3% of expected taxable domestic sales with a minimum of CHF 2,000 and a maximum of CHF 250,000.

If athletes and sports clubs receive only appearance fees or prize money for competitions in Switzerland and have no sales of merchandise in Switzerland nor sales of other services (income from Swiss sponsors or other advertising revenue in Switzerland or sales of broadcasting rights, etc.), they can ask the Swiss organiser of the competition to file and to pay the VAT due via a simplified procedure, without a VAT registration of the athlete or the sports club. If the simplified procedure is applied, there is no right to deduct or ask for a refund of input VAT.

The form to file for this option is located here: www.estv.admin.ch

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