Facts
The municipality of Zumikon filed an administrative court appeal against the decision of the Administrative Court of the Canton of Zurich, which had annulled a real estate capital gains tax imposed on S. The municipality argued that the cantonal tax law already complied with the Tax Harmonization Act and that an administrative court appeal under Art. 73 of the Tax Harmonization Act was therefore admissible.
However, the Federal Supreme Court did not enter into the appeal. It stated that during the transitional period of 8 years pursuant to Art. 72 para. 1 of the Tax Harmonization Act, the administrative court appeal under Art. 73 of the Tax Harmonization Act was excluded, even if the cantonal tax law had already been harmonized. The cantons were still allowed to apply non-harmonized law during this time, and the federal authorities were not authorized to enforce the principles of harmonization before the expiry of the deadline.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court justified its decision as follows
Pursuant to Art. 42quinquies of the Federal Constitution and the Tax Harmonization Act (StHG), the Confederation has enacted principles for the legislation of the cantons and municipalities on tax liability, subject matter and temporal assessment of taxes, procedural law and criminal law. The cantons were granted a transitional period of 8 years to adapt their tax law to these principles of harmonization (Art. 72 para. 1 StHG).
During…