The guide
Guide to Swiss tax and social security deadlines
Swiss deadlines vary with the VAT method, the compensation fund, the pension fund and the canton. This guide gathers the deadlines that matter for a company of 20 to 150 people and explains how to meet them without a spreadsheet.
What are the VAT deadlines in Switzerland?
Under the effective method the VAT return is quarterly: filing and payment are due 60 days after the end of the quarter. Q1 is therefore due on 31 May, Q2 on 31 August, Q3 on 30 November and Q4 at the end of February. Companies using the net tax rate file half-yearly, with deadlines on 31 August and at the end of February. Monthly returns are possible on request, often for exporters in a refund position.
Late filing triggers late-payment interest and, after a reminder, an estimated assessment. Numezis creates the obligation at the end of each period, computes the amount from the entries, checks the consistency of the return and prepares the eCH-0217 export for the Federal Tax Administration.
AHV and LPP deadlines: when are contributions due?
AHV, IV, EO and unemployment insurance contributions are usually paid as advances to the compensation fund, monthly or quarterly depending on the payroll size, then settled through the annual salary declaration, normally due by the end of January. Advances are due within ten days after the end of the period; beyond that, the fund can charge late-payment interest.
For LPP the due date depends on the pension fund rules: quarterly, half-yearly or annual invoices, with contributions due by law at the latest at the end of the first month after the year. Numezis generates these obligations from payroll, with the amounts withheld, and waits for the receipt or the payment proof before closing them.
Withholding tax: settlement deadlines by canton
An employer with staff taxed at source must withhold the tax from salaries, then settle and pay it to the tax office of the competent canton, as a rule within 30 days after the end of the month, under DBG art. 83 to 89 and cantonal law. Some cantons accept quarterly settlement; others require monthly. In return the employer receives a collection commission.
Late settlement exposes the company to interest and an ex officio assessment. Because rates and scales vary by canton, Geneva, Vaud and Zurich do not apply the same rules, Numezis links each deduction to the person’s canton, creates the matching monthly obligation and flags it as soon as it passes its deadline without a receipt.
Why require proof for every obligation?
In most SMEs a deadline is done when someone says so. The problem appears months later, with a reminder from the AHV fund or a notice from the tax authority: the return had been prepared but never filed, or the payment had been entered but never executed.
Numezis replaces the tick with proof. An obligation is received with the authority receipt, paid with the reconciled camt.054 debit notification or an imported proof. In between, it stays visible as proof missing. This simple rule changes the quality of follow-up: the calendar reflects what the authorities received and what the bank debited, not what the team believes it did. For the audit, every obligation carries its own documents.
How a fiduciary tracks client deadlines
A fiduciary that follows fifty SMEs handles several hundred deadlines a year, spread across different VAT methods, cantons and compensation funds. A shared spreadsheet quickly reaches its limits: it does not know who filed what, and it cannot see the bank.
In Numezis each client has a calendar generated from the Swiss templates, and the fiduciary gets a consolidated view sorted by urgency. Overdue items and missing proofs come first. The agent can prepare a VAT return for approval, remind a client about a receipt or propose the payment order. The fiduciary keeps the decision, but stops rebuilding the state of each mandate by hand every month.