News Value Added Tax

New VAT Information Brochure 09 (Input Tax Deduction and Input Tax Adjustments)

On October 31, 2025, the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA) published the fully revised VAT Info Brochure 09 as the current practice. The previous 12 chapters have been reduced to 5, topics have been reorganized, and the input tax reduction section from VAT Info Brochure 05 (Subsidies and Donations) has now been incorporated here. Selected changes are briefly discussed below.

Flat-rate input tax adjustment for secondary activities: A secondary activity exists if the taxable person can credibly demonstrate that less than 10% of the total other (not directly attributable) business expenses, plus any asset or property management costs incurred by third parties, are attributable to the costs of the individual secondary activities.

Granting of loans (interest income) and income from securities trading: If these exempt services qualify as a secondary activity, an input tax adjustment of 0.02% of these revenues can continue to be applied to the mixed-use expenses. Newly, this adjustment is required when revenues exceed CHF 250,000 (instead of previously 5% of total revenue and at least CHF 10,000). Below this amount, no adjustment is required.

Rental income for which taxation is not opted for: If taxable persons rent real estate to third parties as a secondary activity without opting for taxation and generate turnover of more than CHF 70,000 per tax period (instead of previously CHF 10,000), an input tax adjustment of 0.07% of these gross rental revenues can continue to be applied to the mixed-use expenses. No adjustment is required below this amount.

Other significant changes concern, among other things, input tax related to speaker activities, investment companies with or without other main activities, and the consideration of subsidies in the context of input tax relief. As part of the revision, other brochures related to input tax deduction were also updated, for example MBI 11 (aviation) in connection with aircraft holding structures.

For individual advice or further information, please contact Matthias Höhn, Manager VAT, under matthias.hoehn@fineac.ch.

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Matthias Höhn, November 2025