Tax

The principle of subsidiarity does not require a state to consult the taxpayer prior to requesting international administrative assistance in tax matters, as long as its domestic law does not require it to do so. This was the ruling of the Federal Court on the legal question of principle raised in case 2C_352/2024 (intended for publication). In 2020, the Israeli Tax Information Exchange Service requested the FTA to provide it with various information (identity of account holders, identity of beneficial[...]

Bank accounts held by a lawyer may contain information protected by professional secrecy, which must not be disclosed to a foreign state in the context of administrative assistance in tax matters. This must be assumed to be the case for client accounts opened using Form R, but it is also possible that other accounts held by the lawyer may contain protected information. These are the principles laid down by the Federal Court in a ruling 2C_116/2023 of 2 May 2025[...]

On February 19, 2025, the Federal Council sent the message to Parliament concerning the project to extend the automatic international exchange of information in tax matters (AIE) to crypto-assets (the Message) by adopting a framework for the declaration of crypto-assets (CDA). In addition to the CDC, the Message proposes additions and amendments to the law (P-LEAR) and the ordinance (P-OEAR) on the automatic exchange of information. The new rules are expected to come into force on January 1, 2026, for[...]

In a ruling intended for publication, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, against the advice of the Federal Tax Administration, exempts a holding company from stamp duty (i) in the case of an intra-group transfer of shareholdings that do not meet the restructuring conditions set out in the LIFD and (ii) following the granting of shareholdings to employees free of charge (9C_168/2023, 9C_176/2023 of 25 November 2024). The case concerns a holding company carrying out two transactions which the Federal Tax[...]