Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court published in the week from 3 to 9 April 2017.
- Judgment of 20 March 2017 (2C_307/2017): "Legal proposal / objection" against the decision of the Police and Military Directorate of the Canton of Bern not to intervene (concerning road traffic taxes and reminder fees); non-admission.
- Judgment of 17 March 2017 (2C_1000/2015), official publication provided: Administrative assistance DTA Switzerland - France; A request for administrative assistance from a state cannot be complied with if it violates the principle of good faith, particularly if it is based on information obtained through criminal acts under Swiss law, such as data theft in this case (for further details, see our contribution of 5 April 2017).
- Judgement of 17 March 2017 (2C_637/2016): Forfeiture of the refund of withholding tax; if the value of the shares is declared in the securities register and the corresponding field with the income is left blank and if the value of this income is derived from an enclosed current account, the non-declaration must be qualified as inadvertent and not deliberate (E. 3.5), the appeal must be approved and the matter referred back to the cantonal tax administration.
- Judgment of 22 March 2017 (2C_305/2017): Public-law complaint and subsidiary constitutional complaint against the decision of the Court of Appeal of the Canton of Basel-Stadt not to enter into force (concerning additional taxes 2004-2007); not to enter into force.
- Judgment of 17 March 2017 (2C_654/2016): The Federal Administrative Court dismissed an appeal by A. AG Bank against the payment order of the FTA, which had set the share of A. AG Bank in the default at CHF 922,000.00 in accordance with Art. 28 IQG (Federal Act on International Withholding Tax); the Federal Supreme Court dismissed the appeal lodged by A. AG Bank in its entirety; first of all, the Federal Supreme Court stated that "default payments" in accordance with Art. 28 para. 1 IQG concern the relationship between the FTA and the paying agent and thus Art. 84a FSCA is not applicable (E. 1.2.3.); interpretation of Art. 28 IQG and the question of the time of calculation of tax retention with regard to the threshold value of 0.01%; interpretation according to the wording; there is no room for the complainants' view that it should be based on the effective tax retention; historical and teleological interpretation has been correctly reproduced by previous instance (E. 3.5.1 and 3.5.2); rejection of the request for contingency (E. 4)
- Judgement of 27 March 2017 (2C_1031/2016): Cantonal and municipal taxes (Aargau); partially insufficient reasoning (E. 1.3.3); no interest component can be recorded when leasing instalments are paid if the entire nominal amount of the leasing instalments is recorded as a liability (E. 2.3.3); lack of evidence of an obligation to purchase to record an accrued liability (E. 2.4.2); dismissal of the appeal.
- Judgment of 28 March 2017 (2C_297/2017): Administrative assistance( DTA Switzerland - France); by final decision of 10 June 2016, the FTA ordered the forwarding of various information from the complainants following a request for administrative assistance from the French tax authorities. An appeal against this decision was dismissed by the Federal Administrative Court on 27 February 2017. The Federal Supreme Court denies the question of fundamental importance (E. 2.3) and does not consider the appeal (E. 2.4).
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
