Writing an invoice in Switzerland: step by step with a template
An invoice in Switzerland has to show clearly who supplied what to whom, when and at what price. There's only a legal list of mandatory details for VAT registered businesses: Art. 26 of the VAT Act requires the name and location of both parties, the VAT number, the date of supply, a description of the supply, the consideration, and the tax rate and tax amount. For everyone else, these details are considered best practice.
What has to be on every Swiss invoice?
Which details are legally required depends on whether you're registered for VAT. For VAT registered businesses, Art. 26 para. 2 of the VAT Act lists six elements that an invoice must "as a rule" contain. These include the VAT number, which is your UID followed by "MWST" in the format CHE-123.456.789 MWST. The standard VAT rate is 8.1% (since 2024).
For businesses that aren't registered for VAT, the law doesn't prescribe a list. If you're entered in the commercial register, however, you must use your company name on invoices in full and exactly as it's registered (Art. 954a CO). And because every booking has to be backed by a traceable receipt (Art. 957a CO), the same basic details belong on every invoice in practice.
If you don't have your own number to hand, you can look up your UID at any time in the UID register of the Federal Statistical Office. Read more in our article on UID numbers on invoices.
Detail | Legal situation |
|---|---|
Name and location or address of the performing party (if registered in the commercial register, exactly as registered) | Art. 26 para. 2 let. a MWSTG; Art. 954a CO; otherwise practice |
Name and location or address of the receiving party | Art. 26 para. 2 let. b MWSTG; otherwise practice |
Invoice date | Practice |
Unique, sequential invoice number | Not prescribed; practice and help for proof of booking |
Type, object and scope of the service | Art. 26 para. 2 let. d MWSTG; otherwise practice |
Date or period of the service | Art. 26 para. 2 let. c MWSTG, if it differs from the invoice date |
Amount (consideration) | Art. 26 para. 2 let. e MWSTG; otherwise practice |
Payment details (IBAN or QR-IBAN) and payment deadline | Not prescribed, but necessary for you to get paid |
VAT number (format CHE-123.456.789 MWST) | Only if VAT-liable |
Applied tax rate (8.1%, 2.6% or 3.8%) | Only if VAT-liable |
Tax amount | Only if VAT-liable; for prices incl. VAT, stating the tax rate is sufficient |
For your customers to be able to deduct input tax, the key thing is that you're registered for VAT and charge the tax correctly. A complete invoice under Art. 26 of the VAT Act is the easiest way to prove this. If a detail is missing, the deduction isn't automatically lost: VAT proceedings follow the principle of free assessment of evidence (Art. 81 para. 3 VAT Act). Complete invoices do save you follow-up questions during an audit, though.
What's different if you're not registered for VAT?
If you earn less than CHF 100'000 in a year from taxable supplies in Switzerland and abroad, you're exempt from VAT (Art. 10 para. 2 VAT Act). For sports and cultural associations run by volunteers and for non-profit organisations, the threshold is CHF 250'000.
As long as you're not entered in the register of taxable persons, you must not mention VAT on your invoices. If you show a tax amount anyway, you owe it to the Swiss Federal Tax Administration, even if the mistake was made unknowingly. The only ways out are a corrected invoice that refers to and cancels the original one, or credible proof that the federal government hasn't lost any tax, for example because your customer didn't deduct input tax.
In practice, this means:
No VAT on the invoice: Neither a tax rate nor a tax amount appears on the invoice.
No VAT number: You must not add "MWST" after your UID. You don't have to state the UID itself, but you can include it without the addition.
Voluntary registration is possible: If you're below the revenue threshold, you can waive the exemption under Art. 11 of the VAT Act and register with the SFTA, for example if you have high input tax amounts. The waiver applies for at least one tax period.
No notice needed: The invoice doesn't have to state explicitly that you're not subject to VAT. Simply leaving out the VAT section is enough.
How is an invoice structured in Switzerland?
An invoice follows a structure that runs from top to bottom, from the supplier to the recipient, and ends with the payment details. You're free to choose the layout, but the order below has proven itself in practice. Invoice numbers aren't required by law. A unique, sequential number is still standard, because it links every invoice to a receipt in your accounting. It can be made up of numbers only or a combination of letters and numbers, for example INV-2026-001.
Header
Content: The supplier's sender details.
What goes in: Company name (exactly as registered, if entered in the commercial register) or first and last name, address, the VAT number in the format CHE-123.456.789 MWST if you're registered for VAT, and optionally a logo.
Common mistake: VAT registered businesses leave out the VAT number, or the UID appears without "MWST".
Recipient address
Content: Details of the recipient.
What goes in: The customer's name and full address, plus the department or contact person for business customers.
Common mistake: Only the company name without a full address, which causes problems with postal delivery and when reconciling your accounts.
Invoice date and invoice number
Content: Identification and timestamp of the invoice.
What goes in: The date the invoice was issued and a unique, sequential invoice number (e.g. INV-2026-042).
Common mistake: Numbers are used twice or chosen without any system, which makes it harder to match invoices in your accounting.
Description of services and line items
Content: A detailed list of the services provided.
What goes in: The date or period of supply, a description of each line item, quantity, unit, unit price and line total (e.g. 3 h at CHF 150.00 = CHF 450.00).
Common mistake: The service was provided in a different period from the invoice date, but only the invoice date appears on the invoice.
Subtotal, VAT and total
Content: The calculation of the invoice amount.
What goes in: Subtotal (net), the tax rate and tax amount if you're registered for VAT, and the total amount (gross).
Common mistake: VAT is shown even though you're not registered for VAT, or, with several tax rates, it isn't clear which line items fall under which rate.
Payment details and deadline
Content: All the information your customer needs to pay.
What goes in: IBAN or QR-IBAN, payment deadline (e.g. 30 days net) and, for a QR bill, the payment part with the receipt at the bottom of the page or on a separate page.
Common mistake: The payment deadline is missing. Without an agreed deadline, the amount is due immediately (Art. 75 CO), but your customer is only in default once you've sent a reminder (Art. 102 CO). Another mistake: a QR-IBAN without a QR reference, or a regular IBAN with a QR reference. Both result in an invalid payment part.
Sample template
If you're not registered for VAT, leave out "MWST" after the UID and the VAT line. The total is then the same as the subtotal.
What is the QR payment part, and when do you need it?
The QR payment part was introduced on 30 June 2020 and replaced the orange and red payment slips, which were only processed until 30 September 2022. It isn't required by law: you can simply state your IBAN instead. But if you want to include a payment slip, there's no way around it.
The Swiss QR Code stores all payment information in a machine readable format, so your customer can scan the code with their banking app and make the payment in a few seconds. If you want to know more about the technical side, you'll find all the details in our article on creating QR bills for your company.
The standard is defined by SIX on behalf of the Swiss financial centre and published at paymentstandards.ch. For correct printing, the following fixed dimensions apply:
Element | Dimension |
|---|---|
Total QR payment part (payment part + receipt) | 210 × 105 mm |
Payment part alone | 148 × 105 mm |
Receipt alone | 62 × 105 mm |
Swiss QR Code (print size) | 46 × 46 mm |
Layout | Payment part on the right, receipt on the left |
When sending a PDF, the payment part and the receipt must be separated by lines with a scissors symbol. Instead of the scissors symbol, the note "Separate before paying in" above the line is also allowed. Since 21 November 2025, addresses in the Swiss QR Code must be structured, meaning street, house number, postcode and town in separate fields.
As for the IBAN: a QR bill works with your regular IBAN (without a reference or with a Creditor Reference). You only need a QR-IBAN if you want to use the 27 digit QR reference for automatic payment reconciliation. It's different from your regular IBAN and is issued separately by your bank.
Word and Excel have no built-in function for the Swiss QR Code. You can still create a valid QR bill with an add-in, or with a payment part that you generate in your bank's e-banking and paste into the invoice. But that means manual work for every invoice, and mistakes in size, address format or reference only become apparent when the code can't be read.
Can a private individual write an invoice in Switzerland?
A private individual can issue an invoice for a one-off service. VAT details and a UID aren't included. The VAT Act doesn't link VAT liability to a legal form, but to a business within the meaning of Art. 10 of the VAT Act: an independent professional or commercial activity aimed at generating sustained income, with revenue above the CHF 100'000 threshold.
What applies when you issue an invoice as a private individual:
No VAT on the invoice: Without registering with the SFTA, no VAT may appear on the invoice.
No UID number: Private individuals don't have a business identification number and leave this field out.
Include the basic details anyway: Name, address, description of the service, date of supply, amount and payment details aren't legally required for private individuals. Without them, though, the invoice is hard to follow and difficult to enforce in a dispute.
Declare the income: The fee for a one-off service is also taxable income and belongs in your tax return.
Regularity is what counts: If you issue invoices regularly, you'll quickly be considered self-employed. Whether that's the case is decided by the AHV compensation office. For self-employed secondary income of up to CHF 2'500 per calendar year, AHV contributions are only charged on request. If you're unsure, it's worth talking to the compensation office or a fiduciary before you send your second or third invoice.
How nextesy creates invoices with a QR payment part
If you issue more than a handful of invoices a month, software saves you the manual work of numbering, showing VAT and creating the payment part. QR bills according to the Swiss standard are fully integrated in nextesy. You can turn quotes and orders into an invoice with one click.
Swiss QR Code: You enter your IBAN or QR-IBAN and your master data once, and the payment part is generated for every invoice.
Sequential invoice numbers: nextesy assigns invoice numbers automatically.
Templates: Logo, colours, layout, payment terms and text snippets can all be customised.
Sending by email: Invoices go straight from nextesy to your customers, in foreign currencies too.
VAT returns: nextesy supports both the effective method and the net tax rate method.
Fiduciary firms manage their clients in the same system and work with them in real time.
