Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published in the week of 11 - 17 September 2017.
- Judgment of 24 August 2017 (A-1462/2016): Application for a refund of withholding tax; the complainant is an American citizen, but not a person resident in the USA within the meaning of the Swiss-US DBA, since he does not have a long-term residence, permanent domicile or habitual abode in the USA (Art. 4 para. 1 lit. a DBA Switzerland-US); the complainant is not entitled to a refund of withholding tax under the Swiss-United Kingdom DBA as a person with the status of "resident but not domiciled", since the income was neither transferred to nor received in the United Kingdom (Article 27, para. 1 DBA Switzerland-United Kingdom); dismissal of the complaint.
- Judgment of 4 July 2017 (A-2777/2016); decision appealed to the Federal Supreme Court: Stamp duties; turnover tax; aArt. 23 (2) and (4) of the FTA are not conceived as mere regulatory provisions and are both statutory (delegation and free assessment of evidence) and constitutional (no exaggerated formalism or violation of the principle of proportionality); no protection of legitimate expectations based on a letter from the FTA or The appellant owes half a turnover tax for each transfer of taxable documents against payment as an intermediary for Swiss staff pension funds and insurance companies ("client group 1") as a contracting party, since no securities dealer cards of client group 1 could be presented during the audit by the FTA; The appellant owes half a turnover tax each for transactions brokered with the participation of Swiss asset managers of foreign collective investment schemes ("client group 2"), provided that only Swiss asset managers were named in the turnover register under the headings "CounterParty Name" and "CPTY Name 2", but not foreign collective investment schemes, as the Swiss asset managers are deemed to be contracting parties due to a lack of documentation and did not identify themselves in good time by means of the blue securities dealer cards; Rejection for further clarification of the facts and for the new decision on the consequences of turnover tax in client group 2, if a foreign collective investment scheme is mentioned in the register of turnover under the heading "CPTY Name 2"; otherwise, rejection of the appeal, insofar as it was upheld.
- Judgment of 27 June 2017 (A-2800/2016); decision appealed to the Federal Supreme Court: VAT (1st quarter 2010 to 4th quarter 2013); VAT-law consequences of the acquisition of works of art by a stock corporation; input tax deduction permitted; the acquisition is entrepreneurial in nature, as the works of art serve to decorate business premises with the aim of gaining the trust of customers (creation of a good business and negotiation environment); the appeal is admissible and the decision in the lower court is overturned.
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
