Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published in the week of 8 - 14 March 2021.
- Ruling of 1 March 2021 (A-4543/2019): Issue tax; As of 1 March 2012, the issue tax on the issue and renewal of domestic bonds was abolished and the corresponding provisions of the StG were repealed. In the present case, tax claims were in dispute which were affected by these repealed provisions of the aStG and the aStV. Specifically, the question was whether, in the case of an early redemption of a bond without a fixed term, the levy is only due for the effective term up to the time of termination, as argued by the complainant. Background: The bond in question was subject to the issue tax at the rate of 1.2 per mille per annum as a bond within the meaning of Art. 9a let. aStG. In the case of securities with an indefinite term, the maximum term was generally considered to be the ten years following the issue date. The Federal Administrative Court concluded that the issue duty was payable over the 10-year term and that there was no legal basis for the reimbursement of the issue duty demanded by the complainant due to the early termination of the bond. Dismissal of the appeal of the taxpayers.
Decisions in the field of administrative assistance:
- Judgment of 12 February 2021 (A-2667/2020): Administrative assistance (DTA CH-FR); dismissal of the appeal.
- Judgment of 17 August 2018 (A-5687/2017): Administrative assistance (DTA Switzerland - Netherlands); Principle of trust under international law; it is to be assumed that in the present case the sole purpose of the request for administrative assistance was the criminal investigation and prosecution of tax offences and that the lower court was therefore wrong to accede to the request for administrative assistance. The appeal was upheld (newly overturned by Federal Supreme Court 2C_780/2018).
- Judgment of 15 December 2020 (A-2013/2019, A-2015/2019): Administrative assistance (DBA CH-FR); dismissal of the appeal (new non-admission by BGer 2C_67/2021).
- Judgment of 1 March 2021 (A-3576/2020): administrative assistance (MAC); appeal partially upheld.
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
