Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court published in the week from 4 to 10 February 2019.
- Judgment of 21 January 2019 (2C_686/2018): Cantonal and communal taxes 2011 (Geneva); social deductions; deduction for family members; Art. 9 para. 4 StHG states that no other deductions are permitted apart from those listed in Art. 9 StHG, with the exception of child deductions and other social deductions under cantonal law. Art. 9 para. 4 StHG therefore leaves the cantonal legislator a great deal of room for manoeuvre in implementing social security deductions (cf. the decision of the Federal Supreme Court of 23 July 2015 (2C_287/2015), E 3.2). The Federal Supreme Court's examination of the interpretation of the cantonal legislation in question must therefore be limited to an examination of arbitrariness. The interpretation of the lower court respects both the principle of legality and the principle of taxation according to economic capacity and cannot be regarded as arbitrary. The appeal is dismissed.
- Judgment of 24 January 2019 (2C_635/2018): Direct federal tax and cantonal and communal tax 2013 (Zurich); the lower court has legally denied the deductibility of employer contributions The Federal Supreme Court refers to its more recent case law according to which pension plans which contain criteria whose fulfilment depends solely on the will of the employer are not considered objective within the meaning of Art. 1c para. 1 sentence 2 BVV 2 and therefore in such constellations the criterion of collectivity is regularly not fulfilled (E. 3.5). The taxpayer's complaint is dismissed.
- Judgment of 28 January 2019 (2C_59/2019): Wealth tax (Geneva): the appeal is excluded because the complainants cite grounds for appeal which they could already have invoked in the ordinary procedure with the diligence they could have reasonably expected. Dismissal of the appeal in so far as it is upheld.
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
