Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court published in the weeks of 21 - 31 December 2020.

  • Judgment of 3 December 2020 (2C_138/2020): Direct federal tax and state and municipal taxes 2005 (Graubünden); in dispute are various offsets that took place through transactions via affiliated companies. The offsets were correct for income tax purposes. Dismissal of the taxpayer's appeal and partial approval regarding wealth tax.
  • Judgment of 3 December 2020 (2C_739/2020): Direct Federal Tax and State and Municipal Taxes 2005 (Graubünden); The taxpayer did not submit any grounds for appeal to the lower court. He was already able to submit all evidence in detail in the concluded proceedings and must use the appeal in public law matters for the review of the determination of the facts and the assessment of evidence (cf. 2C_138/2020); Dismissal of the taxpayer's appeal.
  • Judgment of 25 November 2020 (2C_332/2020) and ( 2C_333/2020 ) and (2C_334/2020): Direct federal tax and state and municipal taxes 2014 (Schwyz); Simplified settlement procedure under Art. 37a DBG; A was the sole shareholder of C AG and D AG and held 50% of E AG; A was also the sole member of the board of directors of C AG and E AG; The lower court subjected the board of directors' income accounted for in the simplified accounting procedure to ordinary taxation on the basis of tax avoidance; Control over a company and remuneration that exceeds the leeway pursuant to Art. 37a DBG. Control over a company and a remuneration that exhausts the leeway pursuant to Art. 37a DBG do not yet make the arrangement appear to be out of the ordinary, provided that no fictitious activity is compensated; the taxpayer's appeal is upheld and the matter is referred back to the lower court for reassessment.
  • Judgment of 1 December 2020 (2C_683/2020): VAT; tax exemption under Art. 53 para. 1 lit. a VAT Act; A AG waived the withholding of VAT up to a purchase amount of CHF 300 and deducted the turnover of the uncollected VAT from the taxable turnover in the VAT invoice form (cf. our article of 12 July 2020 on the decision of the Federal Administrative Court); the Federal Supreme Court examined whether the exemption limit of CHF 300 complies with the principle of equality of rights and answered in the affirmative; the taxpayer's appeal was dismissed.
  • Judgment of 26 November 2020 (2C_132/2020), official publication planned: Direct Federal Tax and State and Municipal Taxes 2011 and 2012 (Geneva); In dispute is the reversal of the annual depreciation on the shareholdings of three wholly-owned companies acquired in 2005 and the release of the reserves created by the depreciation made between 2005 and 2010. The taxpayer has argued that it incurred additional costs to acquire the equity interest, but has not substantiated those costs, justifying the reversal of the annual depreciation. Moreover, the taxpayer did not acquire its shareholdings in the three companies at an excessive price and these shareholdings have not lost value, so that the write-downs made were never justified and these may be added to the taxable profit in accordance with Art. 62 para. 4 DBG. Dismissal of the taxpayer's appeal.

Non-entry decisions / administrative assistance:

Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.

Tax topics covered in this post:
Income Tax
Value Added Tax (VAT)
Treaties
Profit Tax
Wealth Tax
International Tax