zsis) - Center for Swiss and International Tax Law

Self-employed activity and allocation of services under VAT law - The crux of external appearance

In August 2021, the Federal Administrative Court ruled in two cases on the question of whether the fact of independence as an explicit requirement for a subjective tax liability was fulfilled. Directly linked to the question of independence is the assessment of the external appearance, i.e. an outwardly perceptible, independent appearance as a service provider. At the same time, the VAT Act links the external appearance to the assessment of which taxable entity the objective facts of the service provision, in short, to whom the turnover achieved is to be allocated. The independence required for tax liability and the allocation of services are thus interlinked on the basis of the external appearance as a common criterion.

Sale of own shares - a service within the meaning of the VAT Act?

In its ruling 2C_891/2020 of 5 October 2021, the Federal Supreme Court upheld the Federal Administrative Court and decided, contrary to administrative practice, that the sale of treasury shares does not constitute a supply of services within the meaning of Art. 18 para. 1 VAT Act and is therefore outside the scope of application of VAT. This article is a brief analysis of the Federal Supreme Court's decision.

Relocation of businesses, functions and assets for profit tax purposes under VAT law

Within the framework of the STAF, a legal basis for the recording of cross-border inbound and outbound relocations of operations, functions and assets has been created at the federal, cantonal and municipal level. The question arises as to how such relocations should be treated for VAT purposes. The treatment is particularly relevant for inbound relocations in industries with a reduced input tax rate. As an outflow of the "dual entity" approach, relocations within the same legal entity between headquarters and permanent establishment are of interest.

Data as a value added tax payment?

In the course of ongoing digitisation, more and more business models are being established in which the user receives the service free of charge at first glance. However, a precise analysis shows that in order to do so, the user must provide user and usage data as well as content. This paper examines whether, from the point of view of Swiss VAT, such data qualifies qualitatively and quantitatively as a fee under Art. 3 lit. f and 24 para. 1 MWSTG and thus constitutes a taxable service.