Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court published in the week of 13 - 19 April 2020.
- Judgment of 5 March 2020 (2C_885/2019): VAT Q1/2011 to Q4/2015; discretionary assessment; in the present case, no proper records of the taxpayer's restaurant were available; namely, there was a difference of around CHF 50,000 between the VAT statement (around CHF 150,000) and the accounting (around CHF 100,000). Accordingly, there was sufficient reason for a discretionary assessment. The assessment made in the present case based on cost price and direct expenditure according to accounting is appropriate; dismissal of the taxpayer's appeal (see also our article of 3 November 2019).
- Judgement of 30 March 2020 (9C_51/2019): Cantonal and municipal taxes, direct federal tax 2015 (Vaud); disputed were the deductibility of a CAS course and the commuting to work by private car. The lower court based the deductibility of the CAS course on the date of payment of the invoice, which is correct. Thus, the taxpayer would have had to claim the costs in the 2015 tax period and they would not have been deductible under the rules applicable at that time. The deduction for the costs of the private car was also rejected, as the taxpayer only needs one hour more per day with public transport compared to the car, which is quite reasonable. Rejection of the taxpayers' complaint.
Non-occurrence decisions / inadmissible complaints:
- Judgement of 2 April 2020 (2C_233/2020): Administrative assistance - double taxation agreement between Switzerland and the Netherlands (DTA CH-NL); the appeal will not be entertained.
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
