Decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court (CW 13+14 - 2018 )

Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published in the week of 26 March - 8 April 2018.

Judgment of 28 February 2018 (A-7299/2016): Withholding tax (refund); the refund of the withholding tax in an EU group relationship for a dividend paid by the Swiss subsidiary to its shareholder (an Irish parent company) was controversial; due to the personal union of the boards of directors between the management of the parent company and the grandparent company, neither the achievement nor the use of the disputed dividend could be regarded as being at the discretion of the parent company, which is why the right of use had to be denied to it; dismissal of the complainant's appeal.

Judgment of 19 March 2018 (A-5765/2016): Withholding tax (refund); in particular, it was disputed whether the complainant resident in Austria was the recipient of the dividends paid in the years 2009 to 2012, whether these dividends therefore accrued to him and whether he was effectively entitled to use them; the question of the accrual is assessed according to the law of the source state and thus in the present case according to Swiss law, that of the right of use according to the autonomous interpretation of the agreement, which is made by the authorities of the source state; dismissal of the complainant's appeal.

Judgment of 16 March 2018 (A-3404/2017): Customs tariff (tortillas); the appeal is upheld and the appeal decision of the Zollkreisdirektion Basel is annulled; the disputed product "tortillas [...]" is classified under tariff number 1905.9085 and the import is accordingly duty paid at the preferential rate for imports from the EU

Judgment of 6 February 2018 (A-1192/2017, A-1197/2017): Value Added Tax (VAT); tax exemptions (2008-2013); for details of this decision see our contribution of 25 February 2018; the decision has since been appealed to the Federal Supreme Court