The Swiss VAT Authority has amended the VAT brochure number 13 on electronic supplies of service and telecommunications.

Most importantly, an electronic supply has been re-defined and the following pre-conditions must be met cumulatively for it to qualify as such:

• the service is supplied via the internet or another electronic network (see cipher 3.2.1: this includes all kinds of analog, digital, mobile or non-mobile networks by which data or signals are being transmitted);
• the service is being supplied automatically and human involvement by the service supplier is minimal (see cipher 3.2.2; the degree of human involvement is only measured from service supplier side – not on the service recipients side / human involvement not included in the degree calculation of “minimal” is for example: technology development, maintenance, upgrades etc. / human involvement included in the degree calculation of “minimal” is for example: non-standardised consulting, evaluating, analysing services, give individual feedbacks, answer individual questions, provide data that has been put together by a human etc.)
• the supply of the service is not possible without information technology (see cipher 3.2.3 reasons for the usage of information technology can be technical, organisational or financial)..

Please find the link to the German Cipher 3.2 here

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