zsis) - Center for Swiss and International Tax Law

Critical examination of the case law on commercial property dealers

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.

Change in practice: Federal Court overturns practice on "economic new construction".

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.

Collective investment schemes with real estate: Selected issues in the real estate transfer tax

Recently, various questions have arisen in practice in connection with the transfer tax for collective investment schemes with direct real estate holdings. This article examines whether the transfer of real estate from one fund management company to another and the transfer of real estate from one collective investment scheme to another triggers the transfer tax.

Charitable foundations - explosive tax law issues

Legal entities that meet the respective requirements of Art. 56 lit. e, g and h of the Federal Law on Direct Federal Tax (DBG) generally benefit from a subjective tax exemption. If legal entities are subjectively tax-exempt due to the pursuit of charitable purposes, according to Art. 56 lit. g DBG, the acquisition and management of "significant capital investments in companies" are only permitted under restrictive conditions. The Federal Supreme Court recently had to assess the question under which circumstances the holding of a significant equity interest in an operating company by a charitable foundation precludes a subjective tax exemption.