Decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court (CW 47 - 2022 )

Overview of tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published between November 21 - 27, 2022:

Judgment of November 2, 2022 (A-5068/2021): Value added tax (2011 to 2014); with regard to the additional tax claim for 2011, the absolute statute of limitations has meanwhile occurred; otherwise, the points are no longer disputed, as the taxpayer has meanwhile confirmed the arguments of the FTA against its appeal. Partial approval of the appeal.
Judgment of 14 November 2022 (A-4256/2021): Value added tax (2012 - 2016); tax avoidance; The FTA does not succeed in the present case in proving the distinctiveness of the art trade in addition to the beverage trade (which takes place abroad). Thus, there is no tax avoidance. The majority of the appeal is upheld.
Judgment of November 14, 2022 (): Judgments of 14 November(A-245/2022 and A-246/2022): Value added tax; services to personnel (tax periods 2011 to 2016); In the present case, it was disputed and to be examined whether the GAs handed out by the taxpayer to the employees constituted a paid service to the personnel pursuant to Art. 47 para. 2 VAT Ordinance and, as a result, a taxable service was rendered by the taxpayer. Thus, the preliminary question arose as to whether or not the distribution of the GAs was justified on business grounds. This had to be judged on the basis of individual indications which spoke against the business necessity. Due to these overall circumstances and since the taxpayer did not present any other evidence, it had to bear the consequences of the lack of evidence. Dismissal of the appeal in principle, but approval of the additional tax claim for 2011 due to the statute of limitations.

Updates on previous tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court:

Judgment of 6 October 2022 (A-4108/2021): MWST 2014-2017 (cf. our article of November 13, 2022); the BGer did not accept the appeal in its judgment of November 21, 2022 (2C_917/2022).
Judgment of 31 May 2022 (A-4078/2021): Value added tax (tax periods 2012-2016); rental of real estate, accommodation service, service to closely related persons (cf. our article of 26 June 2022); the Federal Supreme Court did not hear the appeal in its judgment of 31 October 2022 (2C_563/2022).

Decisions in the area of administrative assistance (incl. republications / updates regarding further appeal):