Decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court (CW 10 - 2019 )

Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published in the week of 4 - 10 March 2019.

Judgment of 12 February 2019 (A-2826/2017): Value Added Tax (VAT) 2010 - 2014; discretionary assessment of the FTA permissible due to incomplete and incorrect accounting; the estimate of a gross profit margin of 80% in the plastering sector made by the FTA is permissible; dismissal of the appeal insofar as it is to be upheld.

Extract from the judgment of Division I, as defined in the Rules of Procedure, against Oberzolldirektion (Directorate General of Customs) of 8 March 2018 (A-5817/2017; BVGE 2018 I/1): Customs; return of seized assets; the appeal is not upheld and the matter is referred to the lower court for reconsideration (as defined inS.d. acceleration order) in order to assess whether the complainant's submission is to be accepted as an objection; the Federal Administrative Court is factually not competent to assess objections concerning facts that lie between the provisional freezing of assets pursuant to Art. 104.1 of the Federal Law on Administrative Offences and the independent confiscation order of the customs authority under Article 104.4 of the Federal Law on Administrative Offences issued in the administrative criminal proceedings pursuant to Article 66 of the Criminal Code; decision confirmed by the Federal Supreme Court in its judgment of 22 August 2018 (1C_332/2018); see also our contribution of 25 March 2018 on the judgment of 7 March 2018 (A-5817/2017).

Judgment of 30 January 2019 (A-3156/2017): Value added tax (VAT) 2010-2013; ground rent; input tax deduction; the uncollected ground rent for the operation of a parking facility does not constitute a state subsidy from municipality C and therefore does not lead to a reduction of the input tax deduction as required by the FTA; acceptance of the complainants' complaint.