The tax administration of the Canton of Basel-Landschaft has published its tax practice (BLStPra) edition March 2018.
The Tax Administration of the Canton of Basel-Landschaft devotes the following decisions in the published BLStPra March 2018 issue:
- Judgment of the Swiss Federal Court 2C_230/2017 of 26 January 2018: Loss offset with real estate profit tax; the profit tax law for legal entities is dominated by the authoritative principle of the commercial balance sheet. If, in the context of a legally provided loss offsetting with the real estate profit tax levied in accordance with the monistic system, a substitute value (market value 20 years ago) is used, the remaining amount may not be transferred back to the ordinary profit tax. A practice to the contrary would artificially distort the determination of profit according to the commercial balance sheet and thus violate federal law.
- Decision of the Tax Court of the Canton of Basel-Landschaft dated 3 November 2017: Forfeiture of restitution; even if concrete changes in the law are underway at federal level, decisions must always be based on the currently applicable legal situation and case law. According to the Federal Supreme Court case law, which has meanwhile been relaxed somewhat, the refund of the withholding tax remains in place in the case of an accidentally undeclared investment income, provided that the income charged with it is clearly evident from the documents submitted for the tax return. As in the present case, this is the case if a dividend confirmation and a credit to the current account have been enclosed with the tax return. Thus, the dividend payment subject to withholding tax was obvious in the assessment.
- Decision of the Tax Court of the Canton of Basel-Landschaft dated 3 November 2017: Change in the total number of hands. The property transfer tax is a pure tax on legal transactions. As a result, changes in internal total ownership percentages are also recorded because the respective ownership percentages are changed. When calculating the tax, the mere land value must not be taken into account if a new building has been constructed on the land. Due to the accession principle in the present case constellation, the respective ownership ratio also refers to the newly constructed building or the apartment contained therein.
- Decision of the Tax Court of the Canton of Basel-Landschaft dated 17 November 2017: Reformatio of architectural fees; own contributions such as architectural fees must, on the one hand, stand up to a third-party comparison and, on the other hand, be booked as income so that they can be deducted as value-enhancing measures in the real estate profit tax. In the absence of a depiction or capitalization in the accounts, such own work cannot therefore be deducted as production costs in the event of a subsequent sale. Despite a reformatio in peius threatened by the court, the appeal was upheld, resulting in a material disadvantage (appeal pending before the cantonal court).
The BLStPra issue March 2018 is available here.
