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If they did refund Swiss VAT then they were incorrect and you might find you will be charged this again.

Swiss VAT is charged by Switzerland on imports; nothing to do with the EU

I disagree. Switzerland has introduced the measure unilaterally. From an EU VAT area point of view, no VAT is due as the item is exported to a non-Eu country.

What do you mean 'if' they did refund Swiss VAT?!
It has already been refunded dozens of times and this has been going on for a year. The money has to go somewhere. Either Amazon is keeping the money or the client gets it back upon request. Amazon of course will be giving some to Switzerland. But can Switzerland check how much Amazon (or any other seller) has made under this new system?!

"Switzerland has introduced the measure unilaterally." Of course, every country is free to decide how they tax imports.

"From an EU VAT area point of view, no EU VAT..." The EU has no jurisdiction over Swiss VAT.

I didn't say they did. But the transaction/sale is conducted in the EU. It is not CH charging the EU. It's Amazon charging it at the moment of the transaction. It's eligible for a refund after successful delivery because it originated/took place in the EU VAT area, but was destined for a third country.

This is particularly true of sales where the VAT is under CHF 5.
Why do you think when I asked Amazon FR/IT/UK to refund it they did so?!
It appears, as you can see from the snip of the UK transaction, that they also refund it when it is over CHF 5. This even surprised me at first as I really thought they would say no the VAT is correct.

This remains unclear for me: can Switzerland check how much Amazon (or any other seller) has made under this new system?!

If the company has a Swiss VAT number than it is the companies responsibility to pay the applicable VAT. So, a VAT refund by the company is just a rebate but not a tax evasion from the costumers point of view.

We can lookup Amazon's Swiss VAT numbers quite easily https://www.uid.admin.ch/

All I want to know is what are the magic words, and to which e-mail address do I have I send them to get a VAT refund

IT - cs-reply@amazon.it or contact them via help section options / chat
FR - cs-reply@amazon.fr or contact them via help section options / chat

UK has a special address, had to look for it in emails - b2b-refund@amazon.co.uk
they have now told me to send future requests there. previous requests were just sent to their regular customer service

Then obviously you are heavily limiting what you can purchase and/or paying more. So many things are simply unavailable in Switzerland, or if they are available, they are triple the price or more and only arrive after a few weeks at best.

Because driving over the border has become impossible or something like that?

Give things a thought before you type them down

This is rubbish, sure some things are more expensive, some are even cheaper, you just need to know how to look and negotiate.

Right. Drugs are usually cheaper in DE

Update: Amazon FR have now provided a direct email address: vat_refund@amazon.fr

And you get the tax back!

I had to go to Germany yesterday and stopped for lunch in an Italian restaurant. For euro 12.5 had soup, fillet of pork in pepper sauce with rosemary roast potatoes, a small dessert and an espresso, for an extra euro 5.5 two Deci red wine.
Here in Switzerland, two Deci red wine alone would cost almost as much as my whole lunch cost.

There are plenty of places around here that offer the same kind of thing at lunchtime for around 15chf. Lunch menus are good value here.

In or around Zürich you will not find:

- Espresso
- Small Dessert
- Soup
- Pork filet with potatoes

For anything close to 15,- chf. I'd say this starts at 30,- at the most cheap places

Negotiate? Are you joking.Bargaining in the supermarket?

Exactly. How is that meant to work? Email the CH website and ask for 50% off the item price citing 'if not I'll buy it in Germany' because it is more than 50% cheaper there?!

No its " if not i'll blow your house apart"

Was over there today again, contrary to rumour the shelves had plenty of stock.

Got talking to a Swiss guy who said if his purchases were less than 50 euro then he just bought a gift certificate to qualify for the tax refund.

This time I had soup, pork steak with mozzarella, potato gratin and espresso for euro 14.5.

As of yesterday afternoon the German customs authorities decided not to stamp the VAT tax forms at the Swiss border.

https://m.20min.ch/finance/news/stor...-mehr-21033793