Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court published in the week of 28 June - 4 July 2021....

  • Judgment of 15 June 2021 (2C_880/2020): Administrative assistance (DTA CH-USA); request for administrative assistance based on Art. 26 DTA Switzerland - USA; transmission of information for the year 1997. For information exchange requests submitted by the IRS up to and including 19 September 2019 (entry into force of the amending protocol DTA Switzerland - USA of 2009 on 20 September 2019), Art. 26 DTA Switzerland - USA in its original version (1996 agreement) must be taken into account. However, if information from earlier tax periods qualifies as necessary or significant for the prevention of tax fraud, administrative assistance must also be granted for this period based on Art. 26 DTA Switzerland-USA. Appeal of the FTA upheld.
  • Judgment of 16 June 2021 (2C_377/2021): Direct federal tax and state and municipal taxes 2007-2011 and 2014-2015 (Valais); Revision; In the present case, the representative of the taxpayers stated in a letter that the documents already submitted were sufficient to prove their lack of fault and thus of liability for tax evasion committed by the separated spouse. In doing so, it did not rely on any legal grounds for reconsidering the apportionment of taxes between the spouses. Nor was it explained how new evidence could be presented that could not already have been presented in the ordinary appeal proceedings. Dismissal of the taxpayer's appeal.
  • Judgment of 8 June 2021 (2C_211/2021): State and communal taxes 2004-2008 (Lucerne); Subjective tax liability; The centre of life of the taxpayers was correctly determined by the lower court, as the taxpayers spent a large part of the years in question there and had no significant personal, family, professional or social relationships at the other locations. Among other things, the credit card transactions and information on the taxpayers' social contacts suggest that this was the case and that the companies of one of the taxpayers were managed from there. Dismissal of the taxpayers' appeal.
  • Judgment of 16 June 2021 (2C_740/2020): State and municipal taxes (Vaud); There is no indirect discrimination if a spouse is liable for the taxes of her husband who has moved away, since only tax debts that arose during the cohabitation of the couple are covered by joint and several liability; dismissal of the appeal.
  • Judgments of 17 June 2021 (2C_744/2020 and 2C_743/2020 and 2C_741/2020): withholding tax; dismissal of appeals.

Non-occurrence:

Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.

Tax topics covered in this post:
Treaties
Income Tax
Wealth Tax
Other Taxes
International Tax