Facts
The case concerns an Italian national, Dr. sc. nat. R., born on 25 June 1956 in S. on Sardinia, who has lived in Switzerland since 1981. He was naturalized in A. (ZH) in 1994 and became a Swiss-Italian citizen. R. is unmarried, lives alone, and has rented a two-room apartment on B.-weg. He has paid taxes in A. until now.
Since 1 September 1994, R. has worked for X. AG in Basel, where he registered as a temporary resident on 1 July 1995. He moved to C. (BS) on 15 August 1995 and lives alone in a two-room apartment. On 23 August 1996, the tax administration of the canton of Basel-Stadt decided that R. was subject to taxation in the canton of Basel-Stadt as of 1 January 1997.
R. contested this decision and filed a constitutional complaint with the Federal Court, requesting the annulment of the decision and recognition of his tax domicile in A. (ZH). He argued that his tax domicile was in A. due to his personal and emotional ties to this city.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined the question of whether R.'s tax domicile was in Basel or A. (ZH). It recalled that, according to case law, the tax domicile of an unmarried employee is in principle at their place of work, except in exceptional cases.
The Federal Court considered that R. had not proven that he had closer personal and emotional ties to A. (ZH) than to Basel. It noted that R. lived alone in C. (BS) and had no family in Switzerland. The Federal Court also considered that R.'s ties to A. (ZH) were not sufficiently close to…