Facts
On March 3, 2016, the Cantonal Administration of Direct Federal Tax and the Cantonal Office of Financial Disputes sent [A.] requests for securities for high amounts concerning federal and cantonal taxes and tax penalties for the periods 2003 to 2011. These requests for securities were assimilated to seizure orders and transmitted to the Office of Debt Collection and Bankruptcy of the District of Sierre for execution. Detailed lists of the assets to be seized were annexed to these orders.
On April 18, 2016, the Cantonal Office of Financial Disputes requested the Office to execute two new additional seizures concerning other assets belonging to A. On April 19, 2016, the Office carried out these additional seizures.
[A.] then filed a denunciation and subsidiarily a complaint with the District Court of Sierre, concluding for the nullity or annulment of these additional seizures. The Court rejected these conclusions, as did the Higher Authority for LP Complaints of the Cantonal Court of Valais.
Considerations
The Federal Tribunal upheld A.'s civil appeal and annulled the additional seizures no. 3 and no. 4. Indeed, the tax authority could not give new instructions to the Office to seize the same assets without basing itself on a new request for securities amounting to a seizure order, in accordance with the requirements of Art. 274 LP.
The precise designation of the assets to…