Nullity of a tax assessment due to violation of the right to file a tax return

Facts

The X. AG was founded in 1994 and aims to broker capital investments and insurance, train financial and insurance advisors, and provide services related to financial investments. It was taxed for the 2000 tax period at its seat in Reinach/BL and, after a change of seat, for the year 2001 in Stansstad/NW on the basis of personal affiliation as fully taxable.

Without prior delivery of a tax return, the tax office of the canton of Solothurn carried out a discretionary assessment against the X. AG on December 22, 2005, for the period 2000, with which it definitively recorded the company on the basis of economic affiliation (place of business in the canton of Solothurn) for income and capital tax. For the year 2001, the X. AG was delivered a tax return, but it was returned unfilled to the authority, which is why the tax office carried out a final discretionary assessment again on December 22, 2006.

The legal remedies brought by the X. AG against these assessments in the canton remained unsuccessful. On May 21, 2010, the X. AG filed a complaint with the Federal Court in public law matters.

Considerations

The Federal Court upheld the complaint. The assessment of the canton of Solothurn for the year 2000 is null and void, as the tax authority did not previously deliver a tax return to the X. AG. This procedural error is so serious that it results in the nullity of the assessment.

For the 2001 tax period, the assessment of the canton of Solothurn is not null and void, but appealable. The X. AG received a tax return, but…