Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published in the week of April 30 - May 6, 2018.
- Judgment of 19 April 2018 (A-3554/2017): stamp duties; issue duty; confirmation of the Federal Supreme Court's case-law on the concept of a merger economically equivalent to a merger, according to which a capital increase and the issue of new participation rights must always be fulfilled in the case of a quasi-merger; in the present case, the subsidies did not take place in the course of a restructuring (quasi-merger) and were therefore not exempted from the issue duty, since no capital increase was made; dismissal of the appeal.
- Judgment of 19 March 2018 (A-5765/2016): Withholding tax (refund); in particular, it was disputed whether the complainant, who is resident in Austria, is the recipient of the dividends paid in the years 2009 to 2012, whether these dividends therefore accrued to him and whether he is effectively entitled to use them (for further details, see our contribution dated 8 April 2018); the decision has since been appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.
- Judgment of 5 March 2018 (A-5193/2016): Tobacco tax; import of water pipe tobacco; fine-cut tobacco and water pipe tobacco are different products; in this case Art. 11 ab. 1 TStG in connection with Annex IV of the TStG is applied; tobacco tax is therefore 12% of the retail selling price; the contested decision is annulled and the case is referred back to the lower court for reassessment in the sense of the considerations (cf. our contribution of 25 March 2018); the decision has in the meantime been appealed to the Federal Supreme Court
- Judgment of 28 February 2018 (A-7299/2016): Withholding tax (refund); controversial was the refund of withholding tax in an EU group relationship for a dividend paid by the Swiss subsidiary to its shareholder (an Irish parent company; see our contribution dated 8 April 2018); the decision has since been appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.
- Judgment of 8 November 2017 (A-5410/2016): Value Added Tax (VAT); decision partially confirmed by the Federal Supreme Court ruling 2C_1069/2017 of 16 April 2018 (see our article of 6 May 2018).
- Judgment of 25 April 2018 (A-7174/2016): Value Added Tax (VAT); the freezing order issued by the FTA concerning a company whose founding member resident in Italy (without signatory powers) had previously managed a sole proprietorship which had not fulfilled its VAT obligations was legal.
Decisions of the Federal Administrative Court in the area of administrative assistance:
- Judgment of 9 April 2017 (A-2523/2015): Administrative assistance DTA Switzerland - Spain; dismissal of the appeal.
- Judgment of 28 December 2016 (A-2797/2016): Administrative assistance (DTA Switzerland - France); the decision was overturned by Federal Supreme Court ruling 2C_28/2017 of 16 April 2018 (cf. our contribution of 6 May 2018)
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
