Law blog
25.02.2026
When the tax authorities value the company at 6 times its net assets
The taxpayers hold shares in a company. They complete their tax return and indicate the value of...
23.02.2026
With a bit of money, my company lends me a few bob.
The taxpayer is the sole shareholder, the sole director with individual signatory power for the company. The company is lending the taxpayer a...
09.02.2026
Business fortune is inherited
👉 The taxpayer sells a property she inherited from her father, independently. 👉 The tax authorities consider the property to have been part of...
27.01.2026
Form over substance or substance over form?
The taxpayer is a lawyer. He is a partner in two partnerships in Liechtenstein. The first is a law firm,...
26.01.2026
Tax montage – or when playing with fire burns your fingers
The taxpayer is a company incorporated under Swiss law with the object of managing shareholdings, real estate and other...
14.01.2026
Tax exemption and revocation
The taxpayer, a foundation of public utility, obtains its tax-exempt status based on the presentation of its statutes....
29.12.2025
Building purchased, demolished, rebuilt and resold; what property gain?
The taxpayers jointly acquired land on which there were three buildings. They demolished the main building...
22.12.2025
Property gains: substantial (ATF publication planned) and complex
👉 Taxpayers sell a house to their child at a friend's price. At a friend's price, because the...
18.12.2025
I am independent of the house in the neighbouring canton which is cheaper fiscally.
👉 The taxpayer declares income from self-employed gainful activity, carried out in the neighbouring canton with more advantageous taxation. 👉 So...
17.12.2025
Transfer pricing and substance in the financial sector
The taxpayer is a managing third party who also carries out the activity of a fund investment advisor for a collective investment scheme...
17.12.2025
When the taxpayer plays shell games with the tax authorities
The taxpayers are the shareholders of a company. The company sells patents to the taxpayers who then contribute them, to...
17.12.2025
Marketing costs – what's the limit for the entrepreneur?
The taxpayer is active in wealth management. The tax authorities are conducting an audit of the accounts and have identified various...
09.12.2025
When the taxman thinks money falls from the sky
The taxpayer sells a property to a third party. The taxpayer fails to meet their tax obligations and gets...
02.12.2025
I qualify my coaching as training and I evade VAT
The taxpayer offers various courses: education and continuing professional development, seminars. She is asking the main division for...
01.12.2025
The tax authorities are looking to reduce private sector salaries.
👉 The taxpayer works as an employee for an insurance company, as a broker. To carry out their activity, the insurance company provides them with...
01.12.2025
Two cantonal tax authorities are seeking to tax the same items.
The taxpayer is taxed in a first canton on all their income and assets. A few months...
25.11.2025
Never give up!
👉 The taxpayer fulfils their tax obligations each year, then is automatically taxed twice. The tax authorities learn that...
24.11.2025
taxation d’office – null or voidable?
The taxpayer is not fulfilling their tax obligations and is subject to an ex officio assessment. They lodge a complaint once they...
24.11.2025
When selling 4 cars makes a dealer…
👉 The taxpayer buys 5 luxury cars and sells 6 over a period of 4 years. 👉 The tax authorities...
20.11.2025
Does your hairdresser do your tax returns (and your tax advisor cut your hair)?
Taxpayers are omitting certain tax items and getting caught red-handed. The recovery...
19.11.2025
And one, and two, and three!
👉 After the butcher's stop (VD), the baker's stop (VD) and now the lawyer's stop. 👉 The taxpayer is a self-employed lawyer...
17.11.2025
The stallion mounts and the taxman counts the pennies
The taxpayer buys and sells annual breeding rights in stallions. Her business also involves the trade...
06.11.2025
When can I deduct maintenance contributions?
The taxpayer receives arrears of a disability pension from their pension fund, including a pension for...
05.11.2025
Yesterday it was right and today it would be wrong? 😳
The taxpayer sells a product for its sister company. The contract stipulates that the taxpayer shall transfer 60% of the price...
03.11.2025
When I'm not allowed to express myself, my rights are violated.
The taxpayers are in dispute with the tax office. The case is with the tax assessor, who is not handing down any...
31.10.2025
My patron is hurting my VAT
The taxpayer is a private law foundation active in research on certain diseases and carries out...
30.10.2025
Intelligence sharing – actionable data without limits for the requesting State?
The applicant state is requesting various information from Switzerland regarding companies A and B. Companies A and B...
23.10.2025
Where is your holding company?
👉 The taxpayer is a holding company with its registered office in Canton A, where it does not pay...
21.10.2025
Private expenses accounted for in the company or professional expenses
👉 The taxpayer is active in the wine trade. She acquires a vehicle from a well-known sports car manufacturer. 👉 During a...
11.10.2025
I have my own little personal arrangements with the taxman.
Taxpayers are leaving Switzerland and requesting the payment of their pension assets. A few years later, they...
01.10.2025
Hello my QC? I think I've made a little blooper...
👉 Taxpayers acquired 30% and then 70% of a company from a third party in two phases. Shortly after acquiring the...
01.10.2025
Divorce, separation and maintenance payments – deductible, taxable?
The taxpayer, a foreign national, arrives in Switzerland with his wife and children. After a few years, the couple's relationship starts to deteriorate...
25.09.2025
Meeting deadlines – and the KPIs
👉 The taxpayer is a partner in a limited liability company (LLC) which decides at the December N general meeting to distribute a dividend. A...
24.09.2025
The foreign tax authority is requesting assistance, but its national law does not allow it to contact the taxpayer beforehand.
Israel 🇮🇱 files a request with Switzerland 🇨🇭 concerning 794 Israeli tax residents who may hold...
19.09.2025
When the taxman likes to play yo-yo
The taxpayer built up their property portfolio years ago. They are achieving a very high rental yield...
16.09.2025
Rental value of overseas properties
The taxpayer owns a property in France. As a rental value, the taxpayer estimates that the rental value...
16.09.2025
Falling foul of the taxman, and riddled with debt, I'm looking to sell my house and…
The taxpayer has tax recall and subtraction procedures affecting 9 tax periods and likely sums...
16.09.2025
Dynamic interpretation of international conventions
France requests administrative assistance from the AFC. It states that the person concerned indicates a domicile in Switzerland, outside of...
15.09.2025
New property tax estimate
The taxpayers receive a decision dated 15 May setting the new fiscal value of their property. On 10 November,...
11.09.2025
A gift is not presumed... and yet
The taxpayer is receiving an interest-free loan from their father, with no repayment deadline but with a repayment plan...
08.09.2025
Completely naked behind my trust
The taxpayer is the beneficiary of a US trust whose settlor is their deceased father. According to the trust deed, the...
04.09.2025
What is the value of my family holding company (continued – mixed holding company)?
The taxpayer is a shareholder of a company. This company is an operating company that is also the holding company of three...
04.09.2025
How much is my family holding worth?
The taxpayer (the family holding company) holds a stake in a listed company. The stock market value of the underlying stake...
03.09.2025
A sum in transit on my account, received or not received?
👉 The taxpayer is understood to have been cautioned by the cantonal police and admits to having received cash for their intervention...
14.08.2025
Attention, this is the heavy stuff! ATF publication planned
👉 Taxpayers live abroad but pay tax in Switzerland because they own property there. During the year,...
12.08.2025
You're paying too much tax and complaining about it? What if your taxes were zero?
Taxpayers are automatically taxed once, then a second time, then a third time, and then they file their returns...
08.08.2025
How to value an asset
Taxpayers are shareholders of a company. This company is not listed, so there is no official share price...
07.08.2025
When the tax authorities make a mistake, can I open the champagne straight away?
The taxpayer sells a property during the tax year. The tax authorities take the situation as at 31 December and tax...
07.08.2025
Reinvestment of property capital gains, within what timeframe?
The taxpayer owns their home, which they leave in 2017, without renting it out or even occupying it as a residence...
31.07.2025
Demolition, reconstruction, and property maintenance costs
👉 The taxpayer acquires a residential building in a rural area. The renovation estimates for the building show that the cost...
24.07.2025
My name appears in international tax assistance documents, what are my rights?
👉 The appellant learns that an application for administrative assistance (tax) had been lodged and that their name appears in the documents...
23.07.2025
Can the tax authorities force people to use public transport?
The taxpayer deducts the cost of a private vehicle at CHF 0.70/km to travel to their place of...
21.07.2025
How to carry out property development – from a tax perspective?
The taxpayer partners with a third party to carry out property development. The partnership agreement takes the form of...
15.07.2025
He is surprised who thought he was taking
The taxpayer company is based in one canton, then in a neighbouring canton for 4 years, then returns...
15.07.2025
Provision and imminence of the risk provided for
👉 The taxpayer makes a loan to her wholly owned subsidiary company% for the acquisition of a plot of land to be developed. The...
14.07.2025
Transfer pricing and exchange of information
The foreign company is under investigation by its relevant foreign tax authority for the group's practice of...
10.07.2025
Novation of easements or clarification of the existing easement's footprint, what are the transfer rights?
The owners of properties 1 and 2 burden property 1 with a servitude (right of use) for 30 spaces...
09.07.2025
It's all about the art of structuring one's assets intelligently.
The taxpayer is a company active in the property sector. It acquires shares in a property PCC for the...
07.07.2025
Occupational pensions and free movement of persons – anticipated Federal Supreme Court ruling
The insured, a French national, arrives in Switzerland and makes purchases to cover pension gaps. The pension institution informs that it will not...
02.07.2025
Company restructuring and issue stamp duty (DTe)
The creation or increase of capital following a restructuring is not subject to DTe law. The bank receives...
01.07.2025
Does the procedure allow for a win?
The taxpayer is a self-employed lawyer living in one canton and working in a neighbouring canton. Not having filed...
24.06.2025
Change of canton and property gain: which canton collects what?
Taxpayers sell their home in one canton and buy a new home in another canton, a bit...
20.06.2025
Professional secrecy of the lawyer and exchange of information (chapter 2: clarifications)
In a previous post, a 🇫🇷 lawyer with a stall at a fair in 🇨🇭 had successfully opposed the exchange...
17.06.2025
Do you master the taxation of your investments?
Taxpayers invest in Italian postal savings bonds. They receive a payment of several hundred EUR in 2018….
30.05.2025
Saving on State Pension, the little pleasure that doesn't pay
It is always tempting to increase one's net income. Some do it sometimes at the expense of the State. Too bad for them...
22.05.2025
Tax return, do I need to fill it out and what should I report on it?
👉 The taxpayer moves to 🇨🇭 and gets taxed by default… 1️⃣✖️ 2️⃣✖️… In the third year, they fill in their first...
22.05.2025
Subject to income tax at source and the employer isn't withholding it... what do I do?
👉 An employee subject to withholding tax has their employer obliged to withhold the withholding tax. And….
13.05.2025
Property maintenance costs – when to deduct them?
The taxpayer owns a property. Property works are carried out on the property. The taxpayer's father pays for them...
09.05.2025
The end of the couple and the establishment of a new home
The taxpayer informs the tax authorities that they are leaving the marital home, which belongs to them, and are leaving it to the...
09.05.2025
Short of cash? My company can give you a loan...
👉 Taxpayers receive a CHF 800k loan from the company in which they are shareholders and directors. The tax authorities...
07.05.2025
Systematic opposition to the actions of the Swiss tax authorities… and then what?
The taxpayer announces themselves (1999) as a new resident to the commune, arriving from abroad. Their activity for the first two...
06.05.2025
World champion!
If we're going to get everything wrong, we might as well do it with panache and elegance. We had already touched upon the issue recently...
02.05.2025
Administrative assistance and professional secrecy of lawyers: who has the final say?
The taxpayer is a French tax resident, a lawyer practising in France and also registered as an EU/EEA lawyer in...
01.05.2025
Employee participation plan – or when the world isn't enough
👉 The Employee Participation Plan (EPP) is a magnificent tool for dangling to a...
29.04.2025
«Trouble always comes in flocks.
👉 Federal judges have just handed down 5 rulings on the issue of the place of effective management (vs taxation at...
28.04.2025
What happens when two cantons want to tax the same taxpayer?
The first canton issues a decision regarding the IFD and ICC, determining the taxpayers' domicile within its...
25.04.2025
«Troubles, they always come in flocks (continued – and certainly not finished)
And that's 6! After the 5 saves posted yesterday, the TF remains in form with a sixth...
24.04.2025
Are fines deductible from taxable profit? What about the provision from the previous financial year that is dissolved upon the imposition of a fine?
The taxpayer received a fine under the Cartels Act. The fine had been provided for in the previous financial year,...
11.04.2025
Property capital gains, how to calculate them?
👉 A property is sold at a forced auction for approximately 50% of the estimated price. Four months later, its...
08.04.2025
Do shell companies still work?
The taxpayer company is founded in Zurich. After 9 years of operation, its registered office is transferred to Zug. The company...
08.04.2025
Cessation of independent gainful activity, resumption of activity by a public limited company whose shareholders are close relations, liquidation profits of the independent.
👉 The taxpayer works as a self-employed individual. They are transferring their business to a newly formed company owned by their...
04.04.2025
What are the financial relations with my company?
👉 The taxpayers are selling two plots of land. Their estate agency is responsible for marketing the plots for sale...
03.04.2025
Tax criminal law – sealing of documents seized from a bank (most often in a complex procedure of misappropriation, or even tax fraud)
👉 An old story that keeps resurfacing like a sea serpent: taxpayers have the AFC breathing down their necks –...
03.04.2025
When to book a provision?
The classic: the business exercise is excellent... and at the moment of closing, you learn that big clouds...
02.04.2025
Trust and international administrative assistance (exchange of tax information on request)
👉 The Italian tax authorities are receiving information about three taxpayers and a trust (the E. trust) of which they are the...
28.03.2025
Bookkeeping – when to write off or provide for a bad debt?
👉 In late 2010, the taxpayer granted a credit line of CHF 700,000 to a third-party company. The loan includes….
25.03.2025
Foundations involved in employee share ownership plans, negotiable stamp duty (DTn) and securities dealer within the meaning of the DTn
👉 Two foundations aim to promote the acquisition of employee shareholdings by employees and executives of the group, respectively,...
21.03.2025
Donation with reservation of usufruct, watch out for the pitfalls
The parent transfers a property to their children, reserving a usufruct, and the children take on the mortgage debt...
21.03.2025
Hidden contributions, anticipation tax and capital contribution reserves
👉 In 2012, the company received a building as a legacy following the death of the previous shareholder. It had accounted for it as...
19.03.2025
Retirement savings and property acquisition
The taxpayers had used CHF 950,000 (their equity) to purchase their house. As they had withdrawn some of...
07.03.2025
Separated parents, child arrangements, parental or individual scale?
When Pandora's box is opened, one never knows what will come out. The law...
04.03.2025
Rental value, also in case of under-occupation?
👉 The taxpayer and his wife buy a 7-room house. 20 years later, the children have left...
28.02.2025
How to make a fortune 💰 in a short time? Through a handsome capital gain, of course!
👉 That's certainly what the taxpayer thought. He is employed by company A. He acquires 10% of the...
25.02.2025
Criminal case, new facts, review of tax assessments that have become final
Several years after being taxed, the past comes back to haunt the taxpayer with the opening of criminal proceedings...
21.02.2025
Is it a good idea to make buybacks just before leaving Switzerland?
👉 The taxpayer, 42, made two withdrawals in mid-July and at the end of September representing 35% of her pension assets just...
19.02.2025
Accounting for a provision to cancel the change in the price of securities
The taxpayer records the value of their securities at the average price of the last month of the year, in accordance with the law...
14.02.2025
Acquiring a home in a jointly-owned residence (PPE), a simple co-ownership, or common ownership?
👉 The taxpayers acquired land in co-ownership with third parties. Their share was 20%. The co-owners wanted...
06.02.2025
Are you planning to move soon? A proper move 🚚 or just shuffling your paperwork 📜 to more favourable tax climates?
👉 The TAF looked into the matter at the beginning of this month. Why the TAF and not the TF?...
03.02.2025
Two cantons want to tax the same taxpayer with the wealth tax... what should be done?
Two cantons are fighting to tax the same taxpayer... except that the ICC procedures are not coordinated with...
03.02.2025
Criminal liability of an accountant in their employer's tax affairs
👉 An accountant's job is a risky one. For those who were unaware, reading the following is essential. 👉 The...
30.01.2025
Divorce and LPP buybacks
This new ruling from the Federal Supreme Court feels like déjà vu. Driving the point home further makes one...
30.01.2025
Shoddy accounting? – what are the tax consequences?
👉 The taxpayer is a shareholder in various companies. The tax authorities conclude that the taxpayer has benefited from advantages (qualified as benefits...
30.01.2025
Why do tax authorities and courts send files to 🥑lawyers🥑 and not to taxpayers?
The taxpayer, who resided in the UK, did not have a notification address or a representative in Switzerland. They wished to consult...
08.01.2025
Taxation and criminal proceedings, how far must the taxpayer cooperate?
Taxpayers declare a value for an investment in a foreign PCC. Appellants do not declare...
11.12.2024
Capital gain from private fortune or income from lucrative activity?
👉 The taxpayer is a lawyer, working partly as a self-employed individual and partly as an employee. They are also...
09.12.2024
Investing in foreign collective capital investment schemes (CCIS) in real estate, what is the tax implication for Swiss investors?
You can hold a property investment directly («in your name») or through a company (property company). You can also hold...
05.12.2024
Inheritance and tax deductions: who pays what?
When the deceased deducted the tax, and the tax authorities opened tax recovery proceedings after the death...
15.11.2024
Concubines and ex-partners, the taxman is watching your financial dealings
Loving each other ❤️ and breaking up 💔 doesn't just happen to married couples, but also to cohabiting couples. 👉 During life together, the...
16.10.2024
Deductibility of property maintenance costs
Everyone knows that property maintenance costs are tax-deductible from the income generated by the properties concerned. Other...
20.08.2024
Reclassification of a capital gain (private wealth) as income from independent gainful activity (business wealth)
In 2003, taxpayers acquired various properties forming part of the historic complex of a former factory. The financing of the acquisition...
20.08.2024
Tax sequestration
The Afc-GE has accustomed us in recent years to carry out tax seizures in multi-million-pound cases. The...
19.08.2024
Invalidity of tax assessments
Taxpayers were compulsorily taxed from 2005 to 2012.👉 In 2012, taxpayers requested a review of...
03.07.2024
Jurisprudence – accounting for provisions
The taxpayer recognised, as an expense in the profit and loss account, a holiday provision of CHF 250,000 (for a...
26.06.2024
Tax refund and AHV provision
The taxpayer, a self-employed individual, had not declared their entire turnover during several tax periods. An assessment procedure for back tax and...
11.06.2024
transfer pricing
The Federal Court rarely considers the issue of transfer pricing. The context is particular in so far as...
10.06.2024
provident institutions and property gains
The exemption for provident institutions applies to direct taxes and inheritance and gift taxes, but not to the tax...
30.05.2024
Income tax – deductibility of Geneva mandatory maternity insurance in the canton of Vaud
Another tax where this deduction is refused 😡 Yes, it's only a few tens of francs, but it's the...
29.05.2024
divorce, pension gap, BVG buy-ins and retirement
The taxpayer divorced in 2013. From 2013 to 2020, they repurchased, year after year, the pension gap resulting from the...
24.05.2024
Real estate, valuing historic homes
The Federal Court has upheld the cancellation of the building permit aimed at demolishing two buildings adjacent to listed buildings...
01.05.2024
lucrative activity – preferential price shares
The taxpayer was employed by a company and was also one of its shareholders. He was able to acquire from another...
24.04.2024
cessation of self-employed business activity through transformation into a capital company and fictitious buy-outs
Accounting profit arising from the revaluation of fixed assets – and therefore a fiscally non-neutral transformation – qualifies for...
02.04.2024
Effective management of a legal entity
In general, a company's effective management is located at its registered office (i.e. the one registered in the Companies Register). This...
05.03.2024
Conditions for non-assessment of rental value
Federal judges issued a ruling on 5 March 2024, docket 9C_745/2023, concerning the conditions of lack of value...
05.01.2024
Recovery of the debt in the PPE renovation fund upon purchase of the PPE share
Ruling 9C_391/2023, delivered by the Federal Supreme Court on 5 January 2024, addresses a question that, to our knowledge, had never...
19.12.2023
Foreign interest and the competent tax authority for taxation
Receiving a pension in retirement is always nice 🤑 However, you need to ask yourself the right questions 🙄 once...
06.11.2023
Effective management of a legal entity
The Court of Cassation has just published a new judgment on the question of the effective management of a legal entity. It concerns...
31.10.2023
Confiscatory nature of the wealth tax/ publication of party names («rubrum»)
The Federal Court judgment 9C_654/2023 of 31 October 2023 raises two points that merit our attention: The...
03.10.2023
Tax debts and marital solidarity for their payment
Both for direct federal tax and for cantonal income and wealth taxes (harmonised law), the...
24.07.2023
Taxation of compensation for the statutory termination agreement of an employment contract
How is the payment for a negotiated termination of an employment contract taxed? As a lump sum payment from a welfare scheme? As...
13.12.2022