Order from abroad and Switzerland charges 8.1% import VAT plus a carrier handling fee — unless the shop already covered it at checkout. Most shops bury that detail in their terms. Look it up once here, and it stays looked up for everyone.
Shipping tables, terms and FAQ — in every language the shop publishes them in.
Reddit and Trustpilot threads from people who already had the parcel delivered.
Including the ones that contradict it, so you can judge the call yourself.
A shop nobody has checked yet takes a minute or two. After that first check, the answer is instant for everyone.
Almost never. Switzerland abolished customs duty on industrial goods on 1 January 2024, which covers most of what people order online. What still arrives is Swiss import VAT plus the carrier's clearance fee — those are not duty, and dropping duty did not remove them.
8.1% of the value of the goods including shipping. A reduced rate of 2.6% applies to categories such as books, newspapers and food. It is charged on the total the parcel is declared at, not on the goods alone.
Yes, indirectly. Import VAT is waived when the amount owed would come to CHF 5 or less, which works out to roughly CHF 62 of goods and shipping at 8.1%, or about CHF 193 at the reduced 2.6% rate. The CHF 150 allowance people often cite is a different rule — it applies to goods you carry across the border yourself, not to anything sent by post.
The carrier charges separately for clearing the parcel through customs. Swiss Post is usually CHF 11–16; DHL, UPS and FedEx charge more. It is billed even when the VAT itself is small, which is why a cheap order can arrive with a fee worth more than the tax.
The shop has to be registered for Swiss VAT and ship on delivered-duty-paid terms, and shops state that inconsistently — sometimes in a shipping table, sometimes a single line in the terms, sometimes nowhere. That is what this register looks up: search a shop above and the answer comes with the quotes it rests on.