Facts
The housing cooperative I. acquired two building land parcels from S. AG in 1976 and commissioned R.S. as the general contractor for the construction of the buildings. In 1981, the housing cooperative credited R.S. with an amount of 4 million Swiss francs. The Federal Tax Administration considered this amount to be a monetary benefit and subjected it to withholding tax. The housing cooperative I. defended itself against this withholding tax and invoked the statute of limitations.
The Federal Supreme Court had to decide whether there is an absolute statute of limitations for withholding tax. It concluded that the Federal Act on Withholding Tax does not know such an absolute statute of limitations. The statute of limitations for withholding tax is governed by Art. 17 VStG, according to which the tax claim becomes time-barred after 5 years. In the present case, this period was repeatedly interrupted by official acts to assert the tax claim, so that the statute of limitations did not occur.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court states that according to general legal principles, public law claims of the state against the citizen are subject to a statute of limitations even without an express legal provision. If the relevant decree does not contain any provisions on the commencement and duration of the statute of limitations, the statutory time limit regulations of other decrees for related claims must be applied.
The Federal Supreme Court has already decided with regard to direct federal tax that there is…