A shipment of bicycle parts is stuck at customs — not because of Swiss VAT, the tariff rate or missing paperwork, but because of a single number that appears on none of the forms: the EORI number. If your Swiss business imports or exports commercial goods, there is no way around this identifier. The good news for freelancers and small businesses: the EORI number Switzerland costs you CHF 0.00, the application usually takes just a few working days, and applying is far less bureaucratic than you think.

In this article, you will learn what an EORI number actually is, who needs one and who does not, how it differs from the UID number, how to apply for one with the Swiss customs administration, and how to verify an existing EORI number. Three practical examples — a bike retailer, a dropshipping entrepreneur, and a courier driver — show you where things go wrong in the real world and what delaying the application can cost you.

What is an EORI number — and why does Switzerland need it?

EORI stands for "Economic Operators' Registration and Identification". Behind the clunky name sits a simple idea: one number that uniquely identifies every company involved in the movement of goods, internationally. Originally rooted in EU customs law, the EORI number is now the standard tool used by the customs administrations of many countries to recognize economic operators and match customs declarations to one another.

Here is what happens in practice: when you move goods across a customs border — whether importing from Italy or exporting to Germany — the customs declaration requires identification of the declaring company. That identification is the EORI number. Customs uses it to assign every declaration to a business, maintain foreign trade statistics, monitor permits, and check that duties and taxes are being settled correctly.

What matters for Switzerland: even though Switzerland is not an EU member, the EORI requirement applies in full to goods traffic with EU countries. The legal basis is Swiss customs law — the foundations are set out in the Customs Act (ZG); see the current version on admin.ch. EU partners require an EORI number from the Swiss exporter for exports out of Switzerland, and in turn Switzerland requires the identifier from importing businesses.

For you as a freelancer or small business owner, this means: as soon as your company moves goods across a border, the EORI number acts as a kind of passport for your business. Registration and administration are handled by the Swiss customs administration, led by the Oberzolldirektion (OZD — the Swiss Federal Customs Directorate, part of the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security, BAZG). The number itself is typically built from a country-specific composition; in Switzerland it is linked to your company's unique identifier (UID number).

Who needs an EORI number in Switzerland?

The rule of thumb: every company that commercially imports or exports goods needs an EORI number. Whether you run a bike shop, a dropshipping store, a machinery manufacturer or a courier service — as soon as physical goods cross a customs border and you are named as a party, the number belongs on the declaration.

These cases typically count:

• Import: You buy goods abroad and have them shipped to Switzerland — for example, parts from an Italian supplier.
• Export: You sell goods to customers in the EU or overseas and ship them yourself or via a freight forwarder.
• Toll manufacturing (contract processing): You send semi-finished goods abroad for processing and get them back.
• Freight forwarders and carriers: Anyone who files customs declarations on behalf of clients must know and report the EORI numbers of the parties involved.
• Dropshipping: Even if the goods never see your warehouse and travel directly from supplier to end customer, you are recorded as the economic operator.

You do not need an EORI number, on the other hand, if you only provide services, sell only digital products, or trade purely domestically. A web designer, a consultant, or a software SaaS business with no goods traffic can safely skip the topic. Private imports — such as the occasional online order for personal use — do not need an EORI either; personal declaration is enough, and the customs office collects import taxes if required.

The gray zone: if you occasionally buy materials or equipment abroad — say printer cartridges or tools — those self-imports officially count as non-commercial imports as long as they are occasional purchases for your own business. But as soon as you regularly buy goods, resell them, or import in larger volumes, you are classified as an economic operator. When in doubt: your customs district will answer this question over the phone in two minutes — use that instead of building on a village festival of guesswork.

Mini-story: Marco, bike retailer from Thun

Marco runs a bike shop in Thun. He orders frame sets and wheels worth CHF 12,000.00 from an Italian manufacturer — his biggest investment of the year ahead of the season. The goods travel by truck over the Gotthard, and at the customs post in Chiasso the transport comes to a halt.

The freight forwarder asks for Marco's EORI number for the import declaration. Marco does not have one. The truck waits two days on the customs lot until the application works its way through the customs administration, and the forwarder bills Marco around CHF 450.00 for standby time and extra effort. The CHF 12,000.00 order itself is unaffected — but the delay costs Marco late deliveries for his own pre-season sales and plenty of nerves.

Since then, the EORI number has been in Marco's master data with the supplier and the forwarder. The application itself would have cost him zero francs if he had done it three weeks before ordering — instead of CHF 450.00 in standby fees and two lost sales days.

Lesson: Apply for the EORI number before you send your first shipment — not once the truck is already on the road.

EORI number or UID number? Not the same — but closely related

The most common confusion around the EORI number in Switzerland: mixing it up with the UID number. Both identify your company, but they do different jobs — and they are still connected.

• The UID number (Unternehmens-Identifikationsnummer) is Switzerland's general company number. It appears in the commercial register, on your invoices and business letters, and the VAT number builds on it. UID numbers are governed by the register system and, for VAT-registered companies, by the Federal Act on Value Added Tax (MWSTG); the commercial register is responsible, and for taxable companies the FTA (ESTV, the Federal Tax Administration).
• The EORI number is your company's customs identifier. It appears on customs declarations and freight documents, but not on your customer invoices. The customs administration is responsible — not the ESTV.

Overview:

One detail that often surprises: in Switzerland, the EORI number is derived from, or synchronized with, the UID number. In practice this means: the two numbers belong together, but you still provide the EORI on customs declarations — not the UID. And if EU customers ask about your VAT (MWST) number, that is a third, related topic: it concerns the tax number you need for invoices to EU countries. We show you how to handle that cleanly in our guide to the VAT number for EU customers.

Applying for an EORI number in Switzerland: step by step (free of charge)

The application sounds like an afternoon spent at a government office — but it is not. Here is how registration works:

1. Check the requirements. You need an active business, usually with a UID number or an entry in the commercial register. Freelancers without a register entry can also apply for an EORI number if they engage in commercial goods traffic.
2. Fill in the application. Registration runs through the Swiss customs administration; you will find information and forms at the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security / Oberzolldirektion. Many customs districts also accept the form on paper or by email — the online route is the fastest.
3. Provide the details. Company name, address, UID number, contact details, and the type of planned import and export activity. No duties, no deposit, no audit of your books — it is purely about identifying your business.
4. Wait for confirmation. You usually receive the number within a few working days — in practice anywhere from one day to about a week, depending on the customs district and workload.
5. Distribute the number. Give the EORI number to your freight forwarder, your logistics provider, and — for exports to the EU — your EU counterpart, if they declare you as a party.

The cost of registration: CHF 0.00. One-time and ongoing. There is no annual fee, no renewal fee, and no hidden charges. Any provider charging you several hundred francs for an "EORI registration" is doing nothing more than filling in this one form for you.

One more word on timing: apply for the number as soon as it becomes clear that you will have goods traffic — not just when the first concrete order lands. The number never expires, costs nothing, and spares you all the stress when things suddenly need to move fast.

Mini-story: Petra, dropshipping entrepreneur from St. Gallen

Petra sells scented candles through her own store — dropshipping model, around CHF 3,500.00 in monthly revenue, with goods shipped directly from a producer in Poland to her Swiss customers. Petra had put off the EORI question, thinking: "The goods never pass through my hands anyway."

With the second larger customer order — a business client in Zug orders workshop packages worth CHF 1,800.00 — the producer asks for the EORI number for the export declaration. Petra knows nothing about it, spends two evenings searching, finds expensive "registration services" charging CHF 250.00 to CHF 500.00, and grows increasingly unsure whether she has understood any of it correctly.

The resolution is unremarkable: Petra finds the customs administration's direct form, fills it in one evening after work, and a few working days later the number is in her mailbox. Cost: CHF 0.00. The producer has listed the number on every export declaration since, and the business customer's order went through without a single hiccup.

Lesson: The biggest risk with the EORI number is not the effort — it is the panic right before a shipment. If you are building a dropshipping business in Switzerland, the article on the dropshipping store in Switzerland covers the right foundations along the way.

Verifying an EORI number: how to prevent customs jams

Applying for your own number is one side — verifying is the other. Especially with EU business partners, it happens easily that a wrong, outdated, or invalid EORI number sits on an invoice or waybill. Customs cannot do anything with it, and the goods sit still.

Your verification options:

• EU EOS database. The European Commission operates a publicly accessible validation system at ec.europa.eu. You enter an EORI number and find out whether it is valid, invalid, or not registered. The check is free and takes less than a minute; it covers registered economic operators in the EU.
• Swiss customs administration. For Swiss numbers and edge cases, contact the customs administration directly; their information service also settles special cases — for example, whether a number still belongs to the old company after a rename.
• Ask your freight forwarder. Your forwarder can see in their systems whether a number worked at the last declaration. That is not a legally binding check, but a quick plausibility test.

A practical tip for everyday work: verify your EU counterpart's EORI number before sending a larger export shipment — and go through your supplier and customer master data once a year, for example when you update your annual figures anyway. For a shipment volume of CHF 15,000.00 or more, the two-minute check always pays off, because a blocked shipment costs you storage fees, delays for the end customer, and goodwill that no amount of francs can buy back.

Mini-story: Reto, courier business owner from Basel

Reto works as a self-employed courier, running regular trips between Basel and Freiburg im Breisgau and Frankfurt. A regional business client hands him an accompanying trade document for a delivery that contains an outdated EORI number — the company was renamed, and the number has been tied to the old company name for a year.

At the border, the discrepancy surfaces. The transport is blocked for two days until the client supplies the valid number and files a correction to the document. Reto's invoice for the trip — around CHF 2,400.00 — meanwhile goes unpaid, and the client pushes settlement back for weeks, citing "delivery difficulties."

Since then, Reto verifies the EORI number of every new business customer before the first run — through the EU database for EU numbers, and via a short inquiry to the customs administration for Swiss numbers. Two minutes per customer, and never again a stranded transport followed by an unpaid invoice. How couriers and delivery services bill their trips cleanly and keep open items under control is covered in the article on transport invoicing in Switzerland.

Lesson: Verifying EORI numbers is supplier care. Whoever checks numbers in advance avoids border standstills — and gets paid faster themselves in the end.

Cost, validity, and VAT: the status quo for freelancers

A few points that cause confusion again and again in practice — and the interface between the EORI number and your bookkeeping:

• Validity: The EORI number does not expire. It remains valid for as long as your company exists. There is no "expiry date" in the true sense — but a change of company, merger, or relocation of registered office requires the registration to be updated.
• Changes: Company name, address, or UID number changing? Report the change to the customs administration, otherwise your master data will not match at the next declaration. An update is free of charge, just like the initial registration.
• No retroactive effect: The number is valid from the date of issue. Anyone who has to declare shipments retroactively over years settles the special case directly with the customs administration.
• Customs duties are a separate topic: Registration is free — customs duties, import taxes, and Swiss VAT (MWST) on imported goods are not. On import, VAT is charged at the rate applicable to the goods (usually 8.1%, and 3.8% or 2.6% for certain goods). As a VAT-registered business, you can deduct this import VAT as input tax. You will find the details at the ESTV and in the current rulings on admin.ch.
• Exports are tax-exempt: The export of goods abroad is exempt from VAT under the MWSTG — provided you prove the export, for example via the customs declaration and the EORI number. Your export invoice therefore shows no 8.1% VAT, but only if the documented requirements are met. That is exactly why EORI and export invoices are so tightly linked.

In short: the number itself is the cheapest part of the entire customs topic. The costs arise from duties — and from mistakes that land you standby fees and supplementary declarations.

And the number sits at an interface that freelancers often overlook: between customs and bookkeeping. Three practical points:

1. The export invoice. When you sell goods abroad, the invoice should normally carry a note on the tax exemption ("Tax-exempt export, MWSTG") and the evidence chain via the customs declaration — including your EORI number and your carrier's. If proof of export is missing, you risk a VAT audit denying the exemption and making you pay the 8.1% retroactively. How a correct Swiss invoice is structured — mandatory details, QR-bill (QR-Rechnung), VAT rates — is shown in our guide to writing an invoice in Switzerland.

2. The waybill. For every cross-border shipment via a freight forwarder, the sender's EORI number is on the document. Many forwarders will not even accept the shipment if the field is left blank — which is in your interest too, because without the number there is no declaration and no goods.

3. Foreign trade statistics. Switzerland reports exports and imports to the statistics office via customs declarations. The EORI number is the key that assigns the figures to the right business — relevant if you ever apply for permits, such as export restrictions or dual-use goods.

For your bookkeeping, this means concretely: file the matching customs declaration and the forwarder's invoice with every export invoice. Anyone using software with a clean invoice archive has all documents at hand in a few clicks — and is done in minutes instead of days when a VAT audit asks for export evidence.

Conclusion: one form, CHF 0.00 — and no more excuses

The EORI number is a model example of a mandatory detail that does not hurt: the application is free, takes a few working days, and saves you plenty of trouble at your first cross-border shipment. The three takeaways:

1. Anyone who imports or exports goods needs one. Import, export, dropshipping, or freight forwarding — the number belongs on every customs declaration.
2. It costs CHF 0.00. Registration, administration, and updates are free of charge with the customs administration. Expensive "registration services" are not needed.
3. Verify numbers before large shipments. The EU database checks EU numbers in two minutes — a blocked shipment costs you a multiple of that time.

And because EORI, exports, and VAT meet at one interface, bookkeeping that thinks these cases through pays off: invoices with the correct export note, clean VAT rates (8.1%, 3.8%, or 2.6%), a QR-bill (QR-Rechnung) with reference, and an archive where you instantly find the customs papers for every invoice. That is exactly what we do with Magic Heidi Invoicing — from the QR payment part to the export invoice to reminders for open items. Pricing starts at CHF 25.00 per month. Give it a try — your future self at the customs office will thank you.