Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published in the week from 15 to 21 May 2017.

  • Judgment of 2 May 2017 (A-4025/2016): Administrative assistance (DTA Switzerland - India); the presumption of good faith with regard to the Indian request for administrative assistance could not be rebutted; the appeal lodged against the FTA's decision on administrative assistance is dismissed.
  • Judgment of 25 April 2016 (A-5228/2016): Withholding tax (declaration); the FTA denied the existence of the conditions for notification (instead of tax payment) in accordance with Art. 24 VStV; an appeal on this point was upheld by the Federal Administrative Court; despite the full recognition of the appellate instance, the violation of hearing committed by the FTA cannot be cured (E. 4.2.3 with reference to its own case-law); however, in the present case, the violation of the right to be heard does not justify the nullity of the order, especially since the appellant was able to participate and contribute in the proceedings before the lower court (E. 4.2.2).
  • Judgment of 3 May 2017 (A-4061/2016): Direct federal tax; place of assessment in the case of intercantonal transfer of residence; the FTA determines the place of assessment of a taxpayer if it is uncertain or disputed in an individual case and several cantons are affected (Art. 108 para. 1 sentence 1 DBG); tax residence; centre of vital interests (Art. 3 para. 2 DBG, Art. 23 para. 1 ZGB by analogy); cumulative conditions for the existence of a tax residence (objective condition of "actual residence" and subjective condition of "intention of permanent residence"); the place of assessment determined by the FTA is confirmed; the appeal is dismissed.
  • Judgment of 10 May 2017 (A-1613/2017): remission of customs duties; application for remission of customs duties; application for the administration of justice free of charge; the application for leave to intervene on the ground of partiality of a judge is dismissed.
  • Judgment of 3 May 2017 (A-362/2017): Value Added Tax (VAT); the appellant has filed a procedural request that her objection be forwarded to the Federal Administrative Court as a jump appeal; the Federal Administrative Court did not act on the request for lack of functional competence (Article 9(2) VwVG) ; the appeal is referred to the lower instance for the sake of competence (Article 8(1) VwVG).

Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.