How to invoice as a freelancer in Switzerland: requirements, VAT and a template

It depends on whether you are entered in the register of VAT-registered businesses. Most freelancers who are starting out are not, because they are below the CHF 100,000 threshold.

If you are not VAT-registered, Swiss law sets no list of invoice details. There are only two rules: no VAT on the invoice (Art. 27 VAT Act), and, if your business is entered in the commercial register, its registered name in full and unchanged (Art. 954a Code of Obligations). Everything else is good practice, and the table below shows what that means.

If you are VAT-registered, Art. 26 para. 2 of the VAT Act says that the invoice must clearly identify the supplier, the recipient and the nature of the supply, and as a rule contain the elements listed in the right-hand column. The law asks for the location (town) of each party; a full address remains good practice.

Yes. As soon as you work as a self-employed sole trader, you can invoice your customers, private or business, in your own name. There is no special status to obtain first for invoicing. There is no Swiss version of the French auto-entrepreneur scheme; the closest form is the sole proprietorship.

Your self-employed status is decided by your AHV compensation office (the office that collects old-age and survivors' (AHV), disability (IV) and income-compensation (EO) contributions; OASI/DI/IC in official English leaflets). You join the compensation office of your canton of residence or of your business's seat, or the office of your trade association if you are a member of one of its founding associations (Art. 64 AHVG and Art. 117 AHVV). The office assesses case by case, on the economic facts, whether you count as self-employed. In construction (painter, mason) and transport, SUVA grants the self-employed status first; only then do you apply to the AHV (SECO SME portal).

As a self-employed person, you pay the full AHV/IV/EO contributions yourself: 10.0% of your income from CHF 60,500 a year, lower rates below that, and a minimum contribution of CHF 530 a year if your income is under CHF 10,100 (AHV/IV leaflet 2.02, position as of 1 January 2026).

A sole proprietorship must be entered in the commercial register once it has had revenues of at least CHF 100,000 in the most recent financial year; members of the liberal professions and farmers who do not run a commercial business are exempt, and anyone else may register voluntarily (Art. 931 CO).

You only invoice now and then, alongside a job, studies or retirement, without being registered as self-employed? The thresholds that matter in that case (AHV, VAT, tax) are on our page invoicing as a private individual.

Here is a complete Swiss freelance invoice, from top to bottom. All data are fictitious: replace them with your own. An invoice made in Word or Excel with these parts is valid; what it lacks is the QR payment slip, which you can create separately, for free, with our QR-bill generator.

Any person who carries on a business is in principle liable to VAT, but you are exempt if, within one year, your turnover in Switzerland and abroad from supplies that are not exempt from the tax without credit (Art. 21 para. 2) stays below CHF 100,000 (Art. 10 para. 2 let. a VAT Act). Below that figure, you invoice without VAT; above it, you must register and charge VAT.

Timing depends on your situation. If you start (or extend) a business and it is foreseeable that you will reach CHF 100,000 within the following twelve months, you are liable from the start. If your business already exists, liability begins after the end of the financial year in which you reached the threshold (Art. 14 para. 3 VAT Act; FTA page “VAT tax liability”).

Below the threshold, you may waive the exemption and register voluntarily, for example to reclaim the VAT on your purchases (Art. 11 VAT Act); you then charge VAT. In the other direction, a VAT-registered business whose turnover falls below the threshold and is expected to stay there must de-register (Art. 14 para. 5 VAT Act); until then, it remains registered.

Swiss VAT rates in force: 8.1% standard rate, 2.6% reduced rate (food, books, medicines, among others) and 3.8% special rate for accommodation (FTA). A proposed increase to fund the AHV (standard rate 8.5%, accommodation 4.0%, reduced rate unchanged), submitted to the popular vote of 29 November 2026, would apply from 2028 at the earliest if accepted, on a date set by the Federal Council; see VAT increase in 2028. Supplies made in 2026 and 2027 stay at the current rates.

You invoice the price of your work without adding VAT, and you do not show a VAT number. This is not just allowed, it is what the law requires: persons not entered in the register of VAT-registered businesses may not include VAT details on their invoices. If they do, they owe the VAT shown, unless they correct the invoice or show that the Confederation has not lost any tax (Art. 27 VAT Act).

A short note such as “Not subject to VAT” or “Not registered for VAT” is optional but recommended. It helps a business customer, who would otherwise wonder why there is no input tax to reclaim. Remember the exception: being under CHF 100,000 is not always enough; a new business that will foreseeably reach that turnover within 12 months is VAT-liable from the start.

No Swiss law requires you to attach a payment slip to an invoice: an invoice with your IBAN is valid. In practice, the QR-bill is the standard. According to SIX, it definitively replaced the old red and orange payment slips on 1 October 2022, and it is the only Swiss payment slip. Your customer scans the Swiss QR code in their banking app, and the IBAN, amount and reference are filled in without typing errors.

Since 22 November 2025, only the structured address (street, postcode and town in separate fields) is permitted in a QR-bill. Some banks have already stopped paying old QR-bills with unstructured addresses; the dates by bank are on our page on the structured address. Version 2.4 of the SIX implementation guidelines, valid from 14 November 2026, brings no technical change for invoices in Swiss francs; for invoices in euros, it allows only the IBAN with an RF reference or an unstructured message.

A normal IBAN is enough for a valid QR-bill; a QR-IBAN is only useful for automatic reconciliation of payments. How to create a QR-bill step by step is explained in our guide to the Swiss QR-bill.

No law requires an invoice number, but a unique, sequential number is strongly recommended: it is your proof and makes checks easier. Never reuse a number and avoid gaps; a simple system such as 2026-001, 2026-002 is enough.

No law sets a standard payment term either. If no term has been agreed (even orally) and none follows from the nature of the deal, payment can be demanded immediately (Art. 75 CO). Your customer is only in default after a formal reminder, unless a due date was agreed, in which case they are in default on that date without a reminder (Art. 102 CO). So always state a clear term, for example “Payable within 30 days”, and agree it before the work starts, in your quote (what a Swiss quote commits you to, with a free template: quote template for Switzerland).

If an invoice stays unpaid, the steps (reminder, default interest of 5% a year, debt enforcement) are on our page unpaid invoice in Switzerland.

Accounting records and vouchers, including the invoices you issue and receive, must be kept for ten years; the period starts at the end of the financial year (Art. 958f para. 1 CO). This applies from your very first invoice.

You may keep them on paper or electronically, provided the link with the underlying transactions is guaranteed and they can be made readable again at any time (Art. 958f para. 3 CO). On a medium that can be changed (hard disk, USB stick, cloud), the ordinance on accounting records (GeBüV/Olico, Art. 9) adds four conditions: a technical process that guarantees the integrity of the data (for example an electronic signature), tamper-proof proof of when the data was recorded (for example a time stamp), compliance with the other rules for that process, and documented procedures with the related logs kept. A folder of PDFs alone does not meet these conditions; ask your accountant or keep a paper copy.

A Word or Excel template is fine for a first invoice, but it does not create the QR payment slip (you add it separately), numbering is done by hand with the risk of duplicates, and in Word you calculate VAT yourself.

Invoicing software handles sequential numbering, VAT and the Swiss QR code for you. Several Swiss tools exist, from free plans to full business suites; our comparison of invoicing software in Switzerland lists ten of them with their prices, read on each vendor's website.

Fele-facture creates invoices and quotes on your phone or computer: you dictate the work (“two hours of design at 110, domain 30 francs”), photograph a handwritten work order, or type; you check, then create the PDF. It handles numbering and VAT according to your status (with or without VAT, one rate per profile).

The QR payment part follows the SIX standard with a structured address. It needs the Independent plan or higher (or the 14-day trial), a Swiss or Liechtenstein IBAN, and the full address of the account holder in your business settings; otherwise the PDF comes out without a QR code. The “Not subject to VAT” note is not printed automatically: add it to your payment terms, a free text printed on your invoices. If you become VAT-registered, delete this note: it is also printed on invoices with VAT.

Prices: the Free plan gives 5 invoices or quotes a month, without the QR payment part. The Independent plan (CHF 15 a month or CHF 150 a year) includes the QR-bill, 25 invoices or quotes a month, expenses, a basic overview and an export for your accountant (on the website and Android app); Unlimited costs CHF 29 a month (CHF 290 a year). The full 14-day trial needs no card and starts when you enter a Swiss or Liechtenstein IBAN, once per business.

What it is not: Fele-facture is not an accounting tool (no general ledger, no VAT return, no payroll), and it does not replace your 10-year retention obligation. Your data is stored in the EU, in Frankfurt (Supabase on AWS eu-central-1, Vercel functions in the fra1 region), not in Switzerland; dictation and photos are processed by US providers.