Decision on the Admissibility of an Appeal against an Administrative Assistance Decision of the Federal Tax Administration

Facts

The Federal Tax Administration (ESTV) received on 11 April 2016 a request for administrative assistance from the tax authorities of the United States of America (IRS) pursuant to Article 26 of the Double Taxation Agreement between Switzerland and the USA. The IRS requested information about certain customers of Bank "[Y.] " for the period from 2002 to 2014. The ESTV ordered the transmission of the requested information. [A.A.] , [X.] and [B.A.] filed an appeal against this with the Federal Administrative Court, which partially upheld the appeal and set aside the final decision of the ESTV. The ESTV then filed an appeal in public law matters with the Federal Supreme Court.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court did not enter into the appeal. It justified this by stating that no legal questions of fundamental importance that could be guiding for practice would arise. The questions raised by the ESTV regarding the party status and…