Overview of the tax law decisions of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published in the week of 10 - 16 February 2020.
- Judgment of 16 December 2019 (A-2204/2018): Value Added Tax (VAT); decision appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.
- Judgement of 1 May 2019 (A-3003/2017): Withholding tax (refund); arbitrage transaction (reverse cash and carry); decision confirmed by Federal Supreme Court judgement of 16 January 2020 (2C_518/2019); for details see our article of 9 February 2020.
- Judgment of 5 February 2020 (A-6377/2019): Customs; Refusal of justice/delay in bringing proceedings: release of a customs deposit; the application for restitutio in integrum in respect of the period prescribed for payment of the advance on costs is dismissed; the appeal is dismissed
- Judgments of 23 January 2020 (A-1617/2019, A-1777/2019 and A-2167/2019): Order for recovery (duty unpaid agricultural machinery) The judgments mentioned above were parallel proceedings. Specifically, the individual judgments dealt with the question of whether an unlawful import of agricultural machinery had taken place, i.e. whether it had not been declared for customs purposes in breach of duty or whether no import VAT had been paid on it. The Federal Administrative Court examined whether any customs and tax exemptions apply. In the individual proceedings, the complainant essentially invoked the provisions of the so-called "Tägermoos Statute", which guarantees free and untroubled access to and from the field cultivation area in the Tägermoos. The Tägermoos is an area in Canton Thurgau that lies between the outskirts of Constance and Tägerwilen. Although it belongs to Switzerland under constitutional law, the Tägermoos is a so-called district of Konstanz. The Tägermoos area is part of the Swiss customs territory. In its rulings, the Federal Administrative Court concludes that the Tägermoos Statute does not contain any provisions to the effect that the import of agricultural machinery - and its permanent residence in Switzerland - is not subject to import tax. Rejection of the complaints.
Decisions of the Federal Administrative Court in the area of administrative assistance:
- Judgement of 20 January 2020 (A-2345/2018): Administrative assistance Switzerland - Lithuania (DTA CH-LT); the appeal is upheld in part; decision appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.
Decisions are listed chronologically by publication date.
