Facts
The case concerns a self-employed person named Josef Hediger, who is insured with the Compensation Fund of the Canton of Zurich. The Compensation Fund provisionally set Hediger's personal social insurance contributions for the years 1982 and 1983 by order of 31 March 1982, as no military tax declaration for the relevant period was available. Hediger filed a complaint against this order, whereupon the Compensation Fund replaced the order with new orders of 25 June 1982 that met the insured's demands. Thereupon, the cantonal AHV Appeals Commission discontinued the proceedings as irrelevant and awarded Hediger party compensation of 150 francs.
The Compensation Fund then filed an administrative court appeal with the request to revoke the award of party compensation. The Federal Office of Social Insurance joined this request, while Hediger requested the dismissal of the appeal.
Considerations
The Federal Insurance Court dismissed the Compensation Fund's administrative court appeal. It stated that even in the case of a so-called "provisional" contribution order, which is issued by analogy to Article 24 paragraph 1 of the Ordinance on Old Age and Survivors' Insurance (AHVV), the person liable for contributions is dependent on filing a complaint if he wants to prevent the order from becoming legally binding. The legal nature of this "provisional" order corresponds to that of the "normal" order in the extraordinary contribution assessment procedure.
According to Article 85 paragraph 2 letter f of the Federal Act on Old Age and Survivors' Insurance (AHVG), the complainant who prevails in the cantonal AHV proceedings is entitled to reimbursement of the costs of the legal proceedings and…