Facts
The appellant [U.] operated a farming business until 1993. Subsequently, he divided his original agricultural plot, sold a part to a construction company and built a development with multi-family houses and an underground garage on the other part. He also granted the construction company a chargeable right of use for 37 underground parking spaces. The cantonal tax administration then qualified all the properties of the [U.] family (with the exception of the self-use) as business assets within the framework of commercial real estate trading.
The Compensation Fund Schwyz then set the AHV/IV/EO contribution for self-employed activity for [U.] for the year 2007. [U.] filed a complaint against this and requested that the property [X.] in [A.] be designated as private assets and thus be exempted from the contribution obligation.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court dismissed the complaint. It stated that the qualification of a property as business assets within the framework of commercial real estate trading cannot be determined solely by the granting of a chargeable right of use for underground parking spaces. Rather, it is decisive that the appellant had given up his farming business and instead taken up an entrepreneurial activity with the subdivision, sale, development, construction and operation of his properties, which goes far beyond mere asset management.
Since the properties in question could not have passed into private assets merely by…