Decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative CourtCW 19 - 2025)

Overview of the tax rulings of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published between May 5 - 11, 2025:

Judgment of February 28, 2025 (A-5341/2022): Customs duties; refund of customs duties under the special inward processing procedure; In the present case, 92 export customs declarations were incorrectly declared with the assessment type "normal assessment", although the special inward processing procedure was intended. The complainant then submitted applications for duty drawback in processing traffic, which were approved by the Directorate General of Customs. As these declarations did not contain a refund application, no special procedure was objectively initiated and the goods are deemed to be normally assessed. No retroactive correction under Art. 59 para. 4 ZG is possible either, because the appellant did not submit a corresponding, substantiated application within the statutory deadline. The requested duty refunds were therefore unfounded as there was no valid processing procedure. The resulting reimbursement of customs duties was wrongly granted and must be reimbursed by the appellant on the basis of Art. 12 para. 1 lit. b VStrR together with default interest. Dismissal of the appeal.
Judgment of April 8, 2025 (A-3644/2023): VAT; limitation period; decision of June 2, 2023; The disputed VAT claims for the tax periods 1997 and 1998 are not yet time-barred due to timely interruption actions (most recently in the context of the assertion of the corresponding loss certificate claim). Most of the appeal dismissed.

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