Overview of the tax rulings of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court published between August 25 - 31, 2025:
- Judgmentof July 31, 2025 (9C_143/2025): Direct federal tax as well as state and municipal taxes 2011 (Geneva); The question in dispute was whether the taxpayer had realized hidden reserves by transferring an apartment from his business assets to his private assets. The complainant was a shareholder in a simple partnership whose purpose was to realize a real estate project. It was intended that he would be allocated an apartment as the sole owner. The 2011 annual financial statements showed an allocation of the apartment to the complainant. The tax authorities concluded from this that the intention to transfer the residential unit to the complainant's private assets had manifested itself objectively. The inner subjective intention of the transfer had resulted in particular from the consortium agreement, which provided for the allocation of the apartment. The lower courts upheld this assessment. Before the Federal Supreme Court, the appellant was unable to demonstrate any violation of the law. Dismissal of the appeal by the obligor.
- Judgment of August 6, 2025 (9C_152/2025): VAT; tax period 2020; The appellant disputes that the conditions for VAT liability are met. He essentially argued that the lower instance had assumed the existence of a relationship of dependency with the hostesses contrary to Art. 20 para. 1 VAT Act and the case law on erotic businesses. The lower court had explained on the basis of various indications why the appearance of the establishment vis-à-vis third parties was decisive in the present case and why the taxable person bore the economic risk. In particular, it found without arbitrariness that the address of the establishment had remained unchanged since 2011, that hostesses were organized by the taxpayer on a daily basis and that the salon had business cards; dismissal of the taxpayer's appeal.
- Judgment of August 6, 2025 (9C_165/2025): Default interest on municipal connection fees and replacement charges (municipality of Anniviers, VS); In 2010, the municipality of Anniviers issued two invoices to A for connection fees and replacement charges in connection with a construction project. A only paid the invoices in 2019 after the Federal Supreme Court rejected his appeal against this (judgment 2C_805/2017 of January 23, 2018). On February 4, 2021, the municipality invoiced the default interest. The cantonal court ultimately came to the conclusion that the municipality should not have charged interest on arrears due to the lack of a legal basis. The municipality complained to the Federal Supreme Court that its right to charge default interest was based on general federal administrative law. Art. 102 OR should be applied analogously. The Federal Supreme Court leaves open the question of whether there must be a legal basis for charging default interest with regard to the municipal causal charges in question. Even if Art. 102 CO were applicable by analogy, this would be supplementary cantonal law. In this respect, a qualified duty to give notice of defects applies based on Art. 106 para. 2 BGG. The municipality had not fulfilled this obligation. Dismissal of the municipality's appeal.
Non-occurrence:
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
