Facts
A.A. was born in 1988 and was naturalized as a Swiss citizen in 2017, at the age of 29. He was exempted from the military service exemption tax (MSETA) in 2017 (due to his naturalization) and paid the tax for the year 2018. By decision of September 25, 2020, confirmed on complaint on November 24, 2020, the Geneva Service for the Exemption from Military Service Tax has subjected [A.] to the MSETA for the year 2019. The Court of Justice of the Republic and Canton of Geneva dismissed A.'s appeal against this decision. [A.] then appealed to the Federal Tribunal, concluding that he should not be subject to the military service exemption tax for the year 2019.Considerations
The Federal Tribunal dismissed the appeal. It considered that the application of the new law to A.'s situation (providing for his renewed liability for the MSETA from 2019) did not constitute a retroactive application of the law. Indeed, the decisive basic elements underlying the MSETA (incorporation or not into a military formation, submission or not to the obligation to serve in the civilian sector, performance or not of military or civilian service) occurred or existed in 2019, i.e. under the new law that entered into force on January 1, 2019. The fact that, under the old law, the year 2018 constituted the last year of A.'s liability for the MSETA, because he had reached the age of 30 at the end of 2018, and that he was again subject, under the new law, to the obligation to pay the military…