We are planning our return to Switzerland from Japan with our three dogs and Cockatoo. Having just recovered from finding out how much it will cost us to fly them home with us, we have also discovered that the Swiss customs will charge us 7.6% VAT on our "family members". Two of our dogs are rescues that we adopted from families who didn't want them anymore...on these two we even get to pay the VAT on the market value. Sounds kind of sick to me. Ihave accumulated a ton of electronics stuff here, but that all qualifies as personal effects without any charge. So, how they get to charge us for our animals is beyond me.

Do any other countries charge VAT on pets?

Sorry to hear about that...

In the UK (should be the same in the rest of the EU, not sure how closely this model is followed in Switzerland) :

Live animals usually used for food production: No VAT
Other animals (eg pets): Standard VAT

Animals used for scientific experiments can in some circumstances have the VAT refunded (ie even to non-registered traders).

So pets would be VATable in the UK - whether you buy them from a pet shop or whether you import them from outside the EU.

I don't see why they would specifically not be treated as personal effects when other items are. Maybe there is a presumption that personal effects are "used" and have little intrinsic value whereas animals are always worth something. I remember seeing a note from my accountant saying that it was worth keeping receipts for expensive items purchased in the UK (such as laptops) as customs might try to apply VAT on re-entry. Can't imagine anybody seriously bothers to do that.

I wonder what the "market value" would be in this case. It might actually be rather low and within your duty free allowance anyway. As a registered trader (of IT products) I never had a problem declaring low/nominal values on stuff that was anything other than saleable as new.

(Actually the value for customs purposes of something "new" is usually what you paid for it rather than what you could sell it for. If acquired in a non-commercial way its typically what you would have had to pay for it if you had acquired it commercially in its country of origin. This value is slightly increased to account for the value of the shipping (!) and that gives the value for customs purposes. So if you bought an elephant in Japan for 100yen which could you can sell in the UK for 1000 yen, the value for UK customs purposes would be 100yen plus a shipping adjustment, not 1000yen.)

Live animals usually used for food production: No VAT
Other animals (eg pets): Standard VAT

So if the OP claims that the animals will be consumed on returning home, they could possibly avoid the VAT? :eek:

So if the OP claims that the animals will be consumed on returning home, they could possibly avoid the VAT? :eek:

Oh don't underestimate "Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs" people. They think of everything! From notice 701/15:

2.4 Are all animals that produce edible meat zero-rated?

No. Although some unusual meat, for example kangaroo steak, may be sold as food in the shops, kangaroos are not animals of a kind generally reared for food in the United Kingdom. Live kangaroos, therefore, are standard-rated.

Perhaps you could contest it in a ...... "kangaroo court" !!