Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published between 4 - 10 April 2022:
- Ruling of 22 March 2022 (A-2704/2020): VAT 2011-2015; debt waiver by public authorities; subsidy; restructuring contribution; The taxpayer's purpose is the construction and operation of mountain railways and sports facilities as well as catering and accommodation facilities. In 2011, the debt-restructuring moratorium was granted, and in 2012 an ordinary debt-restructuring agreement with dividend settlement was confirmed by the court. In this context, several communities waived the repayment of loans granted. In the present case, it is disputed and must be clarified in a first step whether the debt waivers by the communities are subsidies pursuant to Art. 18 para. 2 lit. a VAT Act or restructuring services or debt waivers pursuant to Art. 18 para. 2 lit. e VAT Act. The existence of a waiver of claims within the meaning of lit. e requires that the donor (at least or at the latest in the course of this donation) receives a participation in the enterprise. Without this resulting participation in the company, a contribution according to lit. e would not be distinguishable from a donation according to Art. 18 para. 2 lit. d VAT Act or a grant according to lit. a. Since no participation has taken place in the present case, a subsidy exists, which results in a reduction of input tax. It is then questionable how and in which period the reduction is to be made. Even if these waivers of claims under the composition agreement only became binding when it was confirmed in 2012, their purpose was to remedy the financial emergency in 2011. It must therefore be assumed that the waivers of claims, which qualify as subsidies, were intended for the year 2011. The reduction of the input tax deduction in connection with the debt waivers of the communities is to be made in the 2012 tax period, whereby the input taxes and turnover ratios from 2011 are to be taken into account. For 2011, the tax claim is now (absolutely) time-barred. Partial approval and referral back to the lower court.
- Judgment of 6 May 2020 (A-5601/2019): VAT; precious metal transactions (2011 - 2014); the complainant is part of an international group and carried out various precious metal transactions. In various constellations, it received industrial and precious metal waste and forwarded it to a group company for processing. The volume and stock of the deliveries was (partly) credited to a (precious metal) account. Since the complainant did not receive any economic power of disposal or right to use the precious metals, there was no VAT-relevant exchange of services; the taxpayer's complaint was upheld; the decision was largely confirmed by the Federal Supreme Court.
Decisions in the area of administrative assistance / non-admission (incl. updates due to referral to the Federal Supreme Court):
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
