Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court published during the week of 19 - 25 April 2021.
- Judgment of 15 March 2021 (2C_703/2020): Administrative assistance DTA (CH-IN). In a request dated 21 February 2012, the Indian tax administration submitted a request for administrative assistance to the FTA regarding A. for the tax periods 2004 to 2012 and designated an account at Bank E. They stated that there were indications that A. had signatory powers for their commercial bank accounts. Three questions arose in this case: On the one hand, it was questionable whether the passport copies and information on H., the authorised signatory of the bank account, had to be transmitted. Contrary to the lower court, the Federal Supreme Court answered in the affirmative on the grounds that the identity of a person authorised to sign as the person authorised to dispose of the bank account relationship can be important for clarifying the tax situation. The transmission of the passport copies of the respondents B., C. and D. was also disputed. This was also affirmed by the Federal Supreme Court, since B. is the wife of A., C. is good friends with A. and D. is the mother of C. and thus there are close friendship and family ties. This information is likely to be material. Equally in dispute was whether the "Client Profile" was to be provided. This was also affirmed, as it allows conclusions to be drawn about the circumstances and relationships between the beneficial owners. However, those passages which are unlikely to be relevant for the tax years from 2011 onwards are to be blacked out. The reference by the lower court to the uncertainty that may exist regarding the beneficial ownership of A. is not objectionable. Partial upholding of the appeal of the FTA.
- Ruling of 12 April 2021 (2C_684/2020): Direct federal tax and cantonal and communal taxes 2015 (Neuchâtel): The dispute in this case is whether the complainant was rightly denied tax-effective depreciation of goodwill capitalised due to a merger loss. In the case of a subsidiary absorption, the tax-effective amortisation of capitalised goodwill is to be refused if there is a so-called non-genuine merger loss. A phony merger loss exists if the hidden reserves and goodwill of the acquired company offset the book loss of the acquiring company. In the present case, there were substantial hidden reserves in the acquired companies which compensated for the book loss of the acquiring company. Accordingly, the write-off of the goodwill against the taxable profit was rightly denied. Dismissal of the taxpayer's appeal.
- Judgment of 22 March 2021 (2C_860/2019): Tourist tax regulations; The amended version of Art. 6 para. 2 of the tourist tax regulations of the municipality of Bellwald (VS) of 13 June 2019, which is based on the number of 31 overnight stays for the assessment of the annual flat rate for holiday apartments, does not violate cantonal law in an arbitrary manner. Moreover, the differentiation between hotels and holiday apartments for the amount of the visitor's tax does not violate the principle of equality of rights. Dismissal of the appeal.
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
