Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published in the week of 24 - 30 August 2020.
- Judgement of 15 June 2020 (A-6474/2018): Value Added Tax (VAT); Teak investment (2013); decision challenged before the BGer (see our contribution of 28 June 2020).
- Judgment of 17 August 2020 (A- 2783/2019): VAT; services between legal entities linked by a community With regard to a recipient of services, the FTA rightly found that there was no exempt supply between entities linked by commonwealths within the meaning of Art. 21(2)(28) VAT Act. With regard to another recipient of services, such an exemption did exist in principle. However, the VAT group filing the complaint opted for VAT by means of an open tax statement and settlement in the VAT statements. The VAT group's erroneous perception of the taxability of the service does not change the origin of the VAT debt. Since such an option was permissible, there is no possibility of correction under Art. 27(2) VAT Act (in the version valid until the end of 2017); dismissal of the appeal.
- Judgment of 14 August 2020 (A-1070/2019): Customs; obligation of a forwarder to make a simplified customs declaration pursuant to Art. 105b of the Customs Treaty after a corresponding request for price monitoring; Art. 105b of the Customs Treaty is unlawful for lack of a sufficient legal basis, which is why it must be repealed on the basis of an order based thereon
- Judgment of 14 August 2020 (A-1123/2019): Customs; obligation of a forwarding agent to make a simplified customs declaration pursuant to Art. 105b of the Customs Code following a corresponding request for price monitoring; similar facts as in the judgment of 14 August 2020 (A-1070/2019), for which reason reference is made to the summary there.
- Judgment of 18 August 2020 (A-6139/2019): Customs; inward processing arrangements (time limits). The Federal Supreme Court ruled in BGE 143 II 646 (see our contribution of 12 November 2017) that the time limit mentioned in Art. 59 para. 4 sentence 2 ZG refers to the export period and not to the settlement period for re-exportation for the purpose of proper completion of the inward processing procedure) and there is no reason to depart from this case law; the subsequent collection of import duties was therefore justified. Dismissal of the appeal.
Decisions in the field of administrative assistance:
- Judgment of 17 June 2020 A-5146/2018): Administrative assistance - Double taxation agreement Switzerland - Finland (DTA CH-FI); the appeal is dismissed; decision challenged before the Federal Supreme Court (cf. our contribution of 23 August 2020).
- Judgement of 18 August 2020 (A-5522/2019): Administrative assistance - Double taxation agreement between Switzerland and Russia (DTA CH-RU); the appeal is dismissed.
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
