Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published between 7 - 13 March 2022.
- Judgment of 19 January 2022 (A-4/2021): Customs, agricultural goods traffic; The Swiss-German agreement on border and transit traffic contains special provisions for agricultural goods traffic. According to this agreement, border residents may cultivate land located in the customs border zone of the other state and import and export goods duty-free for permanent or temporary residence. What is in dispute in the present case is whether the complainant fulfils all the conditions for being granted duty-free importation of goods under the LBA. According to the findings of the lower court, which are not substantially disputed, the complainant's farm building does not have enough of its own agricultural equipment and storage rooms for the actual cultivation of the land. The cultivation is mainly carried out by persons or service providers living in Germany, whose point of departure is not the complainant's farm building. The Federal Administrative Court therefore confirmed that the conditions for the duty-free importation of goods under the LBA were not fulfilled in casu. The Federal Administrative Court also pointed out that the complainant's action could possibly even be considered an abuse of rights. Dismissal of the appeal.
- Judgment of 21 December 2021 (A-633/2019): Withholding tax; reporting procedure; The legislature has not provided for an exception to the surrender of the withholding tax, even if a company has become the debtor and recipient of the taxable performance as a result of a merger, as in the present case. Moreover, the withholding tax law allows an application - for refund - to be made in advance due to the dissolution of a legal entity, before the end of the calendar year in which the taxable service becomes due; dismissal of the taxpayer's appeal (newly appealed to the Federal Supreme Court).
Decisions in the area of administrative assistance / non-admission:
- Judgment of 27 January 2022 (A-5238/2021): VAT 2012 to 2017; input tax deduction; non-admission (newly appealed to BGer).
- Judgment of 22 January 2022 (A-2547/2021): Administrative assistance DTA CH-GR; dismissal of the appeal (new dismissal by BGer 2C_147/2022).
- Judgment of 27 January 2022 (A-1285/2020): Administrative assistance DTA CH-IT; partial approval of the appeal (newly appealed to the Federal Supreme Court).
- Judgment of 12 January 2022 (A-900/2020; A-920/2020): Administrative assistance DTA CH-US; appeal partially upheld (new decision confirmed by BGer 2C_101/2022).
- Judgment of 21 December 2021 (A-1533/2018): Administrative assistance DTA CH-RU; dismissal of the appeal (new dismissal by BGer 2C_80/2022).
- Judgment of 21 February 2022 (A-1679/2021): Administrative assistance (DTA CH-ES); dismissal of the appeal.
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
