Decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court (CW 41 - 2021)

Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published in the week of 11 - 17 October 2021.

Ruling of 22 September 2021 (A-1763/2020): VAT deposit taxation (tax period 2018); deposit taxation for services received prior to tax liability is only possible if it can be proven that the services are of value at the time of entry into tax liability; dismissal of the taxpayer's appeal.
Judgment of 28 September 2021 (A-5407/2020, A-5409/2020, A-5410/2020): Import duties; cabotage; It was disputed whether, for the period of use of the tractor units in Swiss customs territory, the power of disposal over them was vested in complainant 1 or remained with complainants 2 and 3, who owned the vehicles. It was also disputed whether the transport of empty semi-trailers from one place in Switzerland to another in Switzerland constituted prohibited cabotage. Overall, there is too little evidence that the power of disposal over the vehicles was transferred to complainant 1. However, it was noted that the transport of the empty trailers was domestic transport, which means that the tractor units that carried out this transport are subject to customs duty. Dismissal of the appeal.
Judgment of 24 September 2021 (A-2831/2020): Customs demand for payment (domestic transport / cabotage); In the present proceedings, it was necessary to clarify whether there was an inadmissible domestic transport. Inadmissible domestic transport occurs when goods are "loaded" onto a vehicle registered abroad in the area of temporary use (in this case Switzerland) and "unloaded" again within this area (in this case Switzerland). The court concluded that the complainant had used the articulated vehicles in question for unlawful inland transport. Dismissal of the complaint.
Judgment of 27 September 2021 (A-2514/2020): Importation of street dogs; determination of the taxable value; The assessment of the taxable value of imported street dogs by the competent Directorate General of Customs was disputed. The court concludes that the complainant succeeds in proving the incorrectness of the discretionary assessment in the specific individual case. The complainant had convincingly shown that there was no market for the street dogs in the present case and thus no market value. The lower court's estimate of the value of the imported dogs did not correspond to the actual circumstances. Appeal upheld.

Decisions in the field of administrative assistance: