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UID-Register — Swiss VAT validation

Switzerland is not in VIES (it's not in the EU). The federal Bundesamt für Statistik (BFS) maintains the UID-Register, which exposes a public SOAP-based PublicServices endpoint.

What we use​

  • Endpoint: https://www.uid-wse.admin.ch/V5.0/PublicServices.svc
  • Method: SOAP GetByUID with a hand-rolled envelope
  • No ext-soap — we POST the envelope manually via cURL and parse with simplexml_load_string, preserving the module's "no SOAP dependency" promise

UID format​

A Swiss UID is CHE-123.456.789 (3-letter prefix + 9 digits with optional dots and dashes). The module accepts any of:

  • CHE-123.456.789
  • CHE123456789
  • CH123456789
  • 123456789 (with country dropdown set to CH)

Internally we normalise to country = CH, number = 123456789.

"Valid" means active AND VAT-registered​

A Swiss UID can exist for a non-VAT-registered business (sole traders below the CHF 100k turnover threshold). For an EU/UK merchant applying reverse charge, that distinction matters.

The module returns STATUS_VALID only when both:

  • The organisation status is ACTIVE, AND
  • vatRegisteredAndActive is true (i.e. the entity has MWST status)

A UID that exists but lacks MWST registration returns STATUS_INVALID with the message "Swiss UID exists but is not VAT-registered (no MWST)".

Test endpoint​

For sandbox testing, override the endpoint to:

https://www.uid-wse-a.admin.ch/V5.0/PublicServices.svc

(Note the -a suffix — that's BFS's "abnahme" / acceptance environment.)