At its meeting on 20 March 2020, the Federal Council approved various measures to cushion the economic consequences of the coronavirus. The tax measures are as follows:
Liquidity buffer in the tax area
The interest rate for value added tax, customs duties, special consumption taxes and incentive taxes will be reduced to 0.0 percent in the period from 21 March 2020 to 31 December 2020. No interest on arrears will be charged during this period. The same regulation applies to direct federal taxes from 1 March 2020 until 31 December 2020.
judicial vacations in civil and administrative proceedings
Due to the extraordinary situation, the Federal Council has ordered an extension of the court holidays in civil and administrative proceedings, which are in any case imminent for the Easter holidays. In these proceedings, the court holidays will begin anew from 21 March to 19 April 2020, and conversely, all other tax proceedings without court holidays (e.g. objection proceedings or appeals to the Zurich Tax Appeal Court) will not be affected.
The notifications are available here (package of measures) or here (judicial vacations).
