On 4 March 2018, Swiss voters voted, 71.6%, against the "NO-Billag" initiative, which aimed to abolish publicly financed media. Accordingly, the revised Radio and Television Law (RTV Act) is expected to come into effect in 2019.

The revised RTV Act will introduce a new scheme for collecting radio and television fees (RTV fees). Furthermore, the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (SFTA) will be responsible for the collection of the RTV fees. This is mainly due to the fact that the RTV fee will be charged to companies registered for Swiss Value Added Tax (VAT) purposes and levied based on their global turnover. Consequently, Swiss VAT registered companies will in general become liable to pay RTV fees.

The following fee assessment categories are currently foreseen in the RTV Act:

It is expected that the RTV will be assessed per VAT number. In the case of a VAT group, the total turnover of the VAT group will be considered. The ordinance to the RTV Act also foresees the formation of corporate fee groups (with at least 30 companies). It remains to be confirmed by the SFTA how the global turnover thresholds above will be interpreted for such groups.

Whether nonresident companies, which are registered for Swiss VAT purposes (only), will be assessed will depend on whether any exemptions or restrictions on liability are introduced this year. However, the VAT return form published by the SFTA for the Q1/2018 period requests global turnover.

———————————————
CONTACTS

For additional information with respect to this Alert, please contact the following:

Ernst & Young AG, Indirect Tax Services, Zurich

• Silke Hildebrandt-Stürmer
  silke.hildebrandt-stuermer@ch.ey.com
• Romy Müller
  romy.mueller@ch.ey.com

———————————————
ATTACHMENT

PDF version of this Tax Alert