Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court published in the week of 2 - 8 March 2020.
- Judgment of 4 February 2020 (2C_344/2018): Refund of withholding tax; the complainant had applied to the competent Austrian tax office for a refund of the withholding tax; the FTA dismissed the applications in their entirety The complainant submits that the dividend distributions and interest in question were attributed to him personally by the Austrian tax authorities for the purposes of income tax. According to the Federal Supreme Court, it has been proven that the income in question did not accrue to the complainant, which is why under Swiss withholding tax law he cannot be regarded as its recipient. For the application of DTAs in the source state, the allocation of the income under his own tax law is decisive. Rejection of the complainant's complaint.
- Judgment of 20 February 2020 (2C_97/2019): Direct Federal Tax and State and Municipal Taxes 2009 (Geneva); The lower instance rightly affirmed a payment in kind, as the company granted a loan to a relative of the sole shareholder and this loan was written off; dismissal of the taxpayers' appeal.
- Judgment of 19 February 2020 (2C_962/2019): Direct Federal Tax and State and Municipal Taxes 2010-2016 (Vaud); No appeal on a final assessment possible if the taxpayer had inadvertently claimed only one trip as travel expenses in his tax return; dismissal of the taxpayer's appeal.
- Judgement of 12 February 2020 (2C_480/2019): Direct federal tax and state and municipal taxes 2012 to 2017 (St. Gallen); A. is married to B. In dispute and to be examined was the tax residence of the husband in the tax periods 2012 to and including 2017; the Federal Supreme Court concludes that no information is available that would overturn the natural presumption that the tax residence of the husband is in the common domestic residence of the spouses. Furthermore, the complainant had not contributed to the clarification of the facts to the extent required, which he would have been obliged to do due to the exceptional circumstances. Rejection of the complaint.
- Judgment of 21 February 2020 (2C_726/2019): State and municipal taxes Aargau 2015; ordinary depreciation on investment properties held as business assets (fixed assets) of a self-employed person; multi-family houses may be held in the general assembly. Buildings held as fixed assets are subject to depreciation based on use and age, which is taken into account by means of flat-rate depreciation over their expected useful life. Rejection of the appeal by the Cantonal Tax Office of Aargau.
Non-occurrence decisions / inadmissible complaints:
- Judgement of 11 February 2020 (2C_121/2020): Administrative assistance - double taxation agreement between Switzerland and Lithuania (DTA CH-LT); the appeal is not upheld.
- Judgment of 20 February 2020 (2C_172/2020): Gift tax (Valais); the appeal is not upheld
- Judgment of 20 February 2020 (2C_174/2020): Re-establishment of a time-limit for payment of the advance on costs (Basel-Stadt); the appeal is dismissed.
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
