Overview of the tax rulings of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court published between September 23 - 29, 2024:

  • Judgment of August 19, 2024 (9C_673/2023) - intended for publication: Staats- und Gemeindesteuern und Direkte Bundessteuer 2006 - 2012 (Bern); In the present case, it must be examined whether the lower court was right to protect the lower court's finding that the tax administration's audit decisions regarding the years 2010 to 2012 were null and void. It must then be examined whether the assessment rulings for the years 2006 to 2009 and, if the tax administration's audit rulings were null and void, whether the assessment rulings for the years 2010 to 2012 are null and void. As the taxpayer rightly points out, the ruling and the objection decision only concerned the years 2006 to 2009. The subject matter of the appeal and the dispute were therefore limited to these tax years. The lower instance was therefore clearly not competent to assess and determine the nullity of the appeal decisions relating to tax years 2010 to 2012. This is an obvious and serious violation of the law, which results in nullity. The legal fate of the contested ruling, with which the lower court confirmed the invalid decision of the lower court, remains to be clarified. The contested judgment is therefore also null and void insofar as the lower court assesses the tax years 2010 to 2012. It also remains to be examined whether the discretionary rulings issued for the years 2006 to 2009 are null and void. The tax authority commits a serious procedural misconduct in particular if it misuses the discretionary assessment to punish the taxpayer for not submitting a tax return or otherwise failing to cooperate sufficiently in the assessment procedure. Together with the obvious inaccuracy of the content of the assessments, this has the effect of invalidating the assessment decisions for the years 2006 to 2009. The taxpayer's appeal is upheld. With regard to the tax years 2010 to 2012, the judgment of the Administrative Court is null and void. Insofar as the tax years 2006 to 2009 are concerned, the judgment of the Administrative Court of the Canton of Berne is set aside. It is established that the assessment rulings of the Canton of Berne for the tax years 2006 to 2012 are null and void.
  • Judgment of August 30, 2024 (9C_237/2024): State and municipal taxes as well as direct federal tax 2018-2020 (Vaud); The dispute was whether the taxpayer was liable to pay tax in Switzerland during the period in question and whether the pension received from France constituted taxable income in Switzerland. The taxpayer was unable to substantiate before the Federal Supreme Court the extent to which the determination of her unlimited tax liability in Switzerland by the lower courts was arbitrary. With regard to the pensions, the appellant was also unable to demonstrate that their taxation in Switzerland violates Art. 20 DTA CH-FR . Dismissal of the taxpayer's (lay) appeal.
  • Judgment of August 12, 2024 (9C_364/2023): State and municipal taxes as well as direct federal tax 2013 (Zurich); loss offsetting and revision; The taxpayers were legally assessed at their main tax domicile in the canton of Zurich for the 2011 tax period with positive income from self-employment (non-cantonal secondary tax domicile) in June 2013. The taxpayers claimed a loss for the 2013 tax period, which consisted of a profit from the 2013 financial year and losses from 2011 and 2012. The losses from 2011 and 2012 were due to fraud. The Zurich cantonal tax office refused to take the loss from 2011 into account in the 2013 assessment, as positive income was assessed for this tax period (2011). The loss incurred in this tax period should have been offset in this year. As the loss was only established after the tax return was submitted, this should have been done as part of an audit. However, the revision period was not used. Dismissal of the taxpayer's appeal.
  • Judgment of August 19, 2024 (9C_772/2023): Handover tax of the Canton of Bern (2017); The question in dispute was whether the cantonal exemption from the handover tax for the acquisition of real estate by state-subsidized companies applies in this case. The Administrative Court of the Canton of Bern came to the conclusion that the exemption from transfer tax for state-subsidized companies requires that there must be a qualified connection between the property in question and the subsidized task. The lower court had denied this connection without the taxpayer being able to demonstrate an arbitrary or otherwise constitutionally untenable application of the law before the Federal Supreme Court. Dismissal of the taxpayer's appeal.

Non-occurrence:

Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.

Tax topics covered in this post:
Income Tax
Property Transfer Tax