zsis) - Center for Swiss and International Tax Law

The editorial for the focus issue "Blockchain, Crypto and NFTs". In recent years, blockchain technology has caused a stir around the world. In this context, tax law has dealt with blockchain technology primarily in connection with cryptocurrencies. However, the scope of blockchain technology goes far beyond cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain technology was originally developed to create Bitcoin, a currency and payment system without intermediaries. Today, it is also used in other areas. Given the tax relevance of the topic, this article provides a brief overview of how various blockchains work and their applications. In addition, the classification of crypto assets by financial market authorities and the limitations of the technology are explained.

Non-fungible tokens ("NFTs" for short), i.e. unique cryptographic tokens representing physical or digital value, are currently on everyone's lips - at least since the NFT "Everydays: the First 5000 Days" was auctioned by Christie's in 2021 for USD 69.3 million. Using the NFTs of the watch brand DuBois et fils, which were issued for the first time in 2021, it will be shown how companies in the luxury sector can use NFTs both to market products and to build a close customer relationship, and which tax issues have to be taken into account.

In the future, blockchain technology will play a central role in digital applications. Due to the increasing prevalence of this technology, tax challenges also arise for the actors involved. This article discusses selected practical and theoretical tax issues related to this technology.

The Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has already published its VAT practice in connection with blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) for the first time in 2019. However, these practice determinations are incomplete in certain areas and have gaps. A revision is urgently needed.

The courts have recently had the opportunity to rule on the issue of commercial property dealers. It has become apparent that the usual criteria, which establish professionalism, are weighted differently. The following paper aims to provide an overview, to describe the weighting of the individual criteria in the case law and to point out possible contradictions. Above all, the paper shows that it is hardly possible to determine which criteria make a private person a professional real estate trader.

In its ruling, which was heard in public on October 13, 2022 and served on the parties in writing on March 30, 2023, the Federal Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of a married couple residing in the Canton of Zurich. It upheld the ruling of the Administrative Court of the Canton of Zurich, according to which the taxpayers had qualified as quasi-real estate dealers by selling a rented apartment building. The Federal Supreme Court based its decision on the fact that the taxpayers, who also held other rented properties in co-ownership, had taken a high financial risk when acquiring the property, had sold the property after a short holding period (5 ½ years), had spent a great deal of time managing the property during the holding period and had acquired it with the plan of achieving the highest possible profit upon sale. In their discussion of the ruling, the authors deal with the Federal Supreme Court's reasoning and explain why the ruling leads to legal uncertainties in practice.

Since the amendment of Art. 32 (2) sentence 1 DBG, costs for the maintenance of newly acquired real estate are also tax deductible as maintenance costs. With this, the legislator abolished the Dumont practice. Instead, the Federal Supreme Court created the legal concept of "economic new construction" for renovation costs of newly acquired real estate. If an "economic new construction" exists, all costs are not deductible as maintenance costs, regardless of their character. The Federal Supreme Court has now - in its ruling of February 23, 2023 - reviewed its long-standing practice and changed it.