Overview of tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court published between October 10 - 16, 2022:
- Judgment of 13 September 2022 (2C_1012/2021): Direct Federal Tax and State and Municipal Taxes 2007-2008 (Bern); In dispute is whether A. AG should have made provisions in its 2007 and 2008 annual financial statements for claims arising from the civil proceedings brought against it from 2016 onwards, which the tax administration should have taken into account by way of balance sheet adjustment to reduce profits. At the time of the approval of the 2007 and 2008 financial statements, criminal charges had not even been filed against the relevant shareholder. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that the risk of possible claims for damages against A. AG has already materialized to such an extent that the formation of a provision would have been appropriate. This result would also not change if the annual financial statements for 2007 and 2008, which were subsequently prepared at the instigation of the auditors and approved at the universal shareholders' meeting on June 14, 2010, were to be taken into account with A. AG. Dismissal of the appeal of A. AG.
- Judgment of 31 August 2022 (2C_139/2022): State and municipal taxes 2019 (Grisons); child pensions from AHV/BVG and child deduction for divorced persons; In the present case, the taxpayer (old-age pensioner) received, among other things, an AHV child pension for his daughter who was born in 2001 and resides abroad. These were paid directly to the daughter. The pensioner did not declare the AHV children's pensions. They were fully offset in the assessment rulings. According to Art. 71ter para. 3 AHVV, a child of full age can apply for payment to himself. In this case, unlike in most other cases of child pensions, it cannot (or no longer) be assumed that there is an inflow of income to the pension beneficiary; they are to be attributed to the child of full age. The cases in which the pension beneficiary applies to the guardianship authorities or the civil courts for a different direct payment beneficiary remain reserved. In this case, the tax-relevant inflow of income must be examined separately. If the pension beneficiary receives a direct payment to himself, the tax-relevant inflow of income occurs in his case. In this respect, it is therefore justified to clarify the previous case law (which was based on the legal situation prior to the entry into force of Art. 71ter para. 3 AHVV). In casu, it emerges from the files that the daughter did indeed apply for direct payment from the age of majority (March). Accordingly, the AHV children's pension is attributable to the taxpayer for tax purposes only up to and including February 2019. Partial approval of the taxpayer's appeal.
- Judgment of September 23, 2022 (2C_933/2021): Value Added Tax 2007-2012; Justified making of discretionary assessment due to incompleteness of records. The estimates of the FTA are not objectionable. The VAT default interest rates for the period under review remained within the legal delegation norms. Dismissal of the taxpayer's appeal regarding the 2011 tax period due to the statute of limitations. In all other respects, the appeal is dismissed.
Non-occurrence:
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
