Swiss VAT Number (UID/MWST): Format, Lookup and Use

Switzerland uses a single number to identify a business everywhere: in the Commercial Register, with the tax authority, in customs and on invoices. It is the UID (Unternehmens-Identifikationsnummer, IDE in French, IDI in Italian), written as CHE-123.456.789. Once a company is entered in the VAT register, that same number becomes its VAT number, distinguished only by a three-letter suffix. There is no second, separate VAT number to track down.

This page is about the number itself: its anatomy, the language suffixes, how to tell it apart from the personal tax number, how to find and validate one, why a Swiss number returns nothing in the EU VIES system, and the threshold at which a foreign firm must obtain one. For VAT rates, returns and filing mechanics, read our companion Swiss VAT system, rates and returns guide.

The Swiss VAT number is your company UID with a VAT-language suffix added. It is not a separate identifier issued alongside the UID. One number identifies the business across every federal and cantonal system, and the suffix simply marks that the holder is registered for value-added tax.

The UID was introduced to give every Swiss enterprise a single, permanent identifier that all authorities share. Before it existed, a company carried different reference numbers for the Commercial Register, for VAT and for social-security and customs systems. Today the UID replaces them: the number assigned at registration follows the entity through its whole life, regardless of name changes, relocation between cantons or changes in tax status. The same nine digits a foreign partner reads on a Swiss supplier's incorporation extract are the digits it prints on its invoices once it charges VAT.

A Swiss VAT number is built from a country prefix, nine digits and a suffix, in a fixed pattern. Read CHE-123.456.789 MWST from left to right:

• CHE is the prefix. It is the ISO three-letter country code for Switzerland (Confoederatio Helvetica) and is always present, so every Swiss UID starts with CHE.
• Nine digits follow, conventionally printed in three groups of three separated by dots. They are issued sequentially and carry no embedded meaning: they do not encode the canton, the industry or the founding date.
• The ninth digit is a check digit, calculated by a modulo-11 method from the preceding eight. It lets software catch a mistyped number before it reaches a register.
• The language suffix (MWST, TVA or IVA) is added after a space once the entity is VAT-registered, and bridges to the next section.

You will see the same number written with or without the dots and hyphen. CHE-123.456.789, CHE123456789 and CHE 123 456 789 all refer to one entity. The canonical presentation keeps the hyphen after CHE and dots between the digit groups. (CHE-123.456.789 is a flagged example, not a real company.)

The single biggest source of error is mixing the business identifier up with the personal one. They look nothing alike once you know what to watch for. A business is identified by the UID, which begins CHE; an individual is identified by the social-security and tax number, which begins 756.

• UID / IDE / IDI: the business identifier, CHE-123.456.789. Issued by the Federal Statistical Office, found in the UID register and the Commercial Register. IDE and IDI are just the French and Italian names for the same UID.
• VAT number: the same UID plus a suffix, CHE-123.456.789 MWST. Same base number, VAT status added by the FTA.
• Personal TIN / AHV: the individual's number, in the form 756 followed by ten digits. It identifies a person, never a company, and is unrelated to the UID.
• Commercial Register number: historically a CH-prefixed company reference, now superseded by the UID as the single registered identifier.

In short: if a number starts with CHE it is a business; if it starts with 756 it is a person; and the VAT number is not a fourth number but the UID with a tax suffix.

Finding a number is not the same as confirming it is valid for VAT. A business can hold an active UID without being VAT-registered, and a registration can lapse. There are two layers of checking, and they answer different questions:

• Active vs VAT-registered. Look the UID up in the register and read the VAT status field. An entity with an active UID is not necessarily a VAT taxpayer. Only a record showing VAT register status: Active confirms the holder is entitled to charge Swiss VAT. Confirm the legal name and address on the record match the invoice.
• Offline sanity check. Because the ninth digit is a modulo-11 check digit, a calculator or software can flag a number that has been mistyped. This catches a typo, but it does not prove the number is VAT-active. Only the register confirms status.

This matters because input VAT can be reclaimed only when it has been correctly charged by a genuinely registered supplier. A wrong, inactive or invented VAT number on a purchase invoice puts your own deduction at risk. If you want this validation built into your purchase workflow, our accounting service checks supplier numbers as part of routine bookkeeping.

A foreign company can be required to register for Swiss VAT even without a Swiss establishment. The trigger is turnover, not residence. Where worldwide annual turnover from taxable supplies reaches CHF 100,000 and the business makes any supply within Switzerland, VAT liability arises from the first franc of Swiss turnover, with no separate domestic threshold to clear first.

Three practical points follow for a foreign registrant:

• You must usually appoint a Swiss-resident tax representative to act for you before the FTA.
• You should register within 30 days of liability beginning.
• Registration assigns a UID with the VAT suffix, exactly like a domestic taxpayer.

The detailed registration mechanics, the simplified net-tax-rate option and the filing calendar all sit in the Swiss VAT system, rates and returns guide. We can handle the registration and ongoing filing for you: our accounting service covers Swiss VAT registration and returns, and we work on a custom-quote basis. Many foreign founders pair this with setting up in Zug, the default low-tax canton for cross-border structures.