Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published in the week of 26 June - 2 July 2017.
- Ruling of 9 June 2017 (A-1515/2016): Administrative assistance (DTA Switzerland - Netherlands); the decision has already been outlined in our contribution of 25 June 2017.
- Judgment of 20 June 2017 (A-3159/2017): Administrative assistance; application for restitutio in integrum; the application for restitutio in integrum in respect of costs proves to be unfounded and is dismissed.
- Judgment of 15 June 2017 (A-7309/2016): Administrative assistance (DTA Switzerland - Netherlands); a self-denunciation by the complainant to the requesting state of the information requested by way of administrative assistance cannot, as a rule, in itself lead to administrative assistance not (no longer) being provided; the complaint is rejected in this respect and is only upheld with regard to the fact that certain transactions must be blackened.
- Judgment of 12 June 2017 (A-2572/2017): Withholding tax; application for restitution (DTA Switzerland - India); taking into account that the Federal Supreme Court had partially overturned the appeal of the appellant against the ruling of the Federal Administrative Court of 29 June 2016, the appeal is returned to the first instance (jump dismissal); not least because of the principle of double appeal (see E. 4); partial approval of the appeal.
- Judgment of 16 June 2017 (A-2888/2016): VAT for the tax years 2010-2013; appeal against the decision of the FTA; issue concerning the export of goods and thus exempt services (Art. 23(2)(6) VAT Act); free assessment of evidence (Art. 81(3) VAT Act); calculation of the amount of tax (E. 7); approval of the appeal.
- Judgment of 20 June 2017 (A-891/2016): Administrative assistance (DTA Switzerland - Netherlands); infringement of the right to be heard if the appellant is only granted access to the file after the decision of the FTA has been issued; recovery of the right to be heard before the Federal Administrative Court; procedural costs and party compensation in the event of infringement of the right to be heard and withdrawal of party applications; dismissal of the appeal insofar as it is not without merit and reimbursement of procedural costs and award of party compensation.
- Judgment of 1 June 2017 (A-5593/2016): Administrative assistance (DTA Switzerland - France); the FTA reassessed the requests for administrative assistance from the French authorities concerning the present decisions on the basis of the Federal Supreme Court ruling of 17 March 2017 (2C_1000/2015) - in which the Federal Supreme Court stated that no administrative assistance is to be provided in the case of bank data stolen in Switzerland (cf. our contribution of 5 April 2017) - and refused administrative assistance; the present proceedings were therefore written off as invalid.
- Judgment of 19 June 2017 (A-3361/2016): Administrative assistance (DTA Switzerland - USA); request for administrative assistance from the US International Revenue Service (IRS) regarding the bank accounts of the A. (complainant) at Bank B.; the FTA intended to transmit the requested data to the IRS; complaint by A; relevant legal bases are the Agreement between the Swiss Confederation and the United States of America for the Avoidance of Double Taxation in the Field of Taxes on Income of 2 October 1996 and the Tax Office Assistance Act of 28 January 1996. September 2012 (StAhiG); the request stands up to the principles of the StAhiG; question of well-founded suspicion; in the present case, various names of bank employees are blackened on the data set to be transmitted, as this information is not considered "probably significant" within the meaning of the StAhiG with regard to the request and would be contrary to proportionality (E. 4.3.2); partial acceptance of the complaint.
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
