Facts
The case concerns a Swiss citizen residing abroad who owns real estate in Switzerland. The cantonal tax office of Zurich requested the appellant to designate a Swiss service domicile. As the appellant did not comply with this request, the tax office served the tax assessment and estimation decisions for the direct federal tax and the cantonal and municipal taxes 2011 by filing them in the records.
The appellant filed a complaint against this procedure with the Federal Supreme Court.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court concluded that the cantonal tax office was able to validly oblige the appellant to designate a Swiss service domicile, as there is a sufficient legal basis for this in Art. 118 DBG and § 128 StG/ZH.
However, there is no formal legal basis for the valid service of the orders by filing them in the records. According to Art. 116 para. 2 DBG, an order may be served by publication in the cantonal official gazette in case of unknown whereabouts or…