We are buying a holiday apartment in Ticino (we are UK residents) but want to buy some furniture in Milan. Does anyone know how we can reclaim the Italian VAT and how much Swiss tax we will have to pay when we import it?

Thanks. Allan (newbie)

Normally you take your receipt to the boarder control on the Italian side, they stamp it ect, you then go to the Swiss side and pay your Swiss import tax. You will then need to go back to the store to collect your tax refund a few weeks later.

What are you looking for? I am in the process of setting up my own firm making furniture to order, I can email you a few pictures if your interested.

it woould be nice if you could email me few pics as well

thnx

Thanks for the advice, RTN. We have actually chosen the furniture we want already.

If you are getting the manufacturer/shop to ship it to you, they should be able to deduct the VAT before sending it. Then you will be liable to the Swiss VAT (7.6%) plus some customs administrative fee which on a large item like furniture shouldn't make a significant difference to the overall price. (I have never worked out exactly how it is calculated, and on some small items you can find the admin charge is more than the value of the item!)

If you are importing them yourself I am not sure how it works - RTN's advice seems roughly in-line with other comments I've seen on here though.