Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published in the week from 11 to 17 November 2019.
- Judgment of 4 November 2019 (A-4542/2019): Value added tax (VAT); interest on building rights; deduction of input tax; reduction of deduction of input tax; discretionary assessment. In the present case, the complainant is an undertaking which has concluded a building lease contract with the municipality of C. enabling it to set up, maintain and operate an underground car park. According to the building lease agreement, the municipality C. is entitled to a building lease interest as soon as the company fulfils the conditions listed in the building lease agreement for their determination and calculation. By spring 2017, the municipality of C. had not yet received any building lease interest. Against the complainant, the FTA initiated a review in spring 2015 and found that the company had not reduced its input tax deduction although it had received a subsidy in the form of a 'rent free' building lease. Consequently, the FTA estimated the tax claim of this subsidy and corrected the deduction already made. The discretionary assessment and the method for calculating the tax claim were subsequently the subject of proceedings before the Federal Supreme Court (judgment of 29 August 2019 2C_233/2019; see our contribution of 15 September 2019). The Federal Supreme Court referred the question to the Federal Administrative Court for a new ruling. With this decision, the Federal Administrative Court again examined whether the discretionary assessment and the method for calculating the tax claim were arbitrary or abusive and rejected the complainant's complaint: the discretionary assessment of the FTA and the calculation of the tax claim had been carried out correctly. The FTA's assessment refers to the conditions contained in the building lease agreement for determining or calculating the building lease interest and is therefore neither arbitrary nor abusive. In addition, the complainant could not sufficiently prove that the tax authority's assessment did not correspond to the actual building right interest rate. Rejection of the taxpayer's complaint.
- Judgement of 10 January 2019 (A-1620/2018): VAT (VAT 1st - 4th quarter 2014); subjective tax liability; the appeal is approved and the appealed decision of the FTA of 15 February 2018 is reversed; decision appealed to the Federal Supreme Court; for details on this decision see our contribution of 27 January 2019.
- Judgment of 3 October 2019 (A-5345/2018): VAT (value added tax); VAT supplier; discretionary assessment; the complaint is dismissed in so far as it is necessary to act. Decision appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.
- Judgment of 28 October 2018 (A-2442/2019): Appeal of 16/29 May 2019 against the judgment of the Federal Administrative Court A-1418/2018 of 24 April 2019. The appeal is not appealed. Decision appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
