Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published in the week of 8 - 14 February 2021.
- Judgment of 8 May 2020 (A-2286/2017): withholding tax; pecuniary benefit; No suspension of proceedings is appropriate in the present case (in particular acceleration of proceedings), even if criminal and administrative proceedings against the institutions are still open in the present case; In particular, reference to a judgment of the Federal Supreme Court (2C_382/2017), which concerned another tax period (cf. our article of 20 January 2019), but can also be applied to the period in dispute and cannot be invalidated by the appellant despite new findings from the other proceedings; dismissal of the taxpayer's appeal; decision confirmed by the Federal Supreme Court (see our article of 31 January 2021).
- Judgment of 23 January 2019 (A-714/2018): post-claim injunction / importation of works of art; decision partially confirmed by the Federal Supreme Court (see our posts of 3 February 2019 and 7 June 2020).
- Judgment of 20 January 2021 (A-2176/2020): Value added tax (tax periods 2011 to 2015); In the context of an audit for the financial years 2011 to 2015, the FTA determined that the complainant had not taken into account presumably taxable supplies and asserted a corresponding claim for back tax together with default interest. After a detailed examination of the specific circumstances, the Federal Administrative Court concludes that the lower court made an incomplete determination of the facts that would have been relevant for establishing the taxable (or non-taxable) nature of the disputed benefits. The appeal is partially upheld and remanded to the lower instance for reassessment.
Decisions in the field of administrative assistance:
- Judgment of 26 January 2021 (A-2664/2020): Administrative assistance DTA CH-FR; Dismissal of the appeal, whereby the FTA must add a note regarding the principle of speciality and an editorial error in its ruling is corrected.
- Judgment of 2 March 2020 (A-2859/2018): Administrative assistance DTA CH-FR; the appeal is upheld insofar as it has to be accepted; decision overturned by the Federal Supreme Court (see our article of 7 February 2021).
- Judgment of 22 January 2021 (A-105/2020): administrative assistance DTA CH-IN; dismissal of the appeal.
- Judgment of 2 February 2021 (A-174/2020): customs; the lower court was right not to hear the appeal; dismissal of the appeal.
