Overview of tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published between December 12 - 18, 2022:

  • Judgment of December 1, 2022 (A-2691/2022): VAT; good faith (2012-2016); the taxpayer repeatedly corresponded with the FTA regarding the applicable tax rate with respect to the products it distributed ("Berufswahlagenda" and "Laufbahnplaner") as well as the advertising ads contained therein. The FTA concluded in a letter: "The corresponding sales are therefore subject to the reduced rate of currently 2.4%". In 2017, the FTA determined in the course of a VAT audit that the sales should have been invoiced at the standard rate and assessed a corresponding additional tax claim. In this case, it was disputed whether the information provided by the FTA referred to the revenues from the sale of the products as well as to the revenues from the advertisements and whether the protection of legitimate expectations applied to the sale of the products as well as to the revenues from the advertising services provided. Taking into account the overall context (reference to previous correspondence, etc.), the protection of legitimate expectations also applies to the revenues from the advertising services rendered, which means that the retroactive set-off was wrong. Approval of the taxpayer's appeal.
  • Write-off decision of December 6, 2022 (A-648/2020): Withholding tax; benefits in kind; Due to the discontinuation of the bankruptcy proceedings, the appeal is written off as having become irrelevant.

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

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

Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.

Tax topics covered in this post:
Value Added Tax (VAT)
Treaties
International Tax
Withholding Tax