Approval of the appeal by the Cantonal Tax Office of Zurich against the cancellation of the supplementary tax rulings for the tax periods 2001-2006

Facts

The Cantonal Tax Office of Zurich conducted an assessment according to its discretion and recorded the entire down payment in the tax period 2007 as income of [X.] . The cantonal legal remedies brought against this decision remained unsuccessful. The Federal Court (BGG) lifted the discretionary assessment and referred the case back to the Cantonal Tax Office of Zurich for reassessment. Subsequently, the Cantonal Tax Office of Zurich initiated a supplementary tax procedure for the years 2001-2006 and requested various documents from [X.] , which the latter could not provide in full. The Cantonal Tax Office of Zurich imposed a supplementary tax on [X.] for the tax periods 2001-2006, exercising its discretion. The objections brought against this decision were rejected by the Cantonal Tax Office of Zurich. The Administrative Court of the Canton of Zurich lifted the supplementary tax rulings.

The parties involved are the Cantonal Tax Office of Zurich as the appellant and [X.] as the respondent. The proceedings 2C_304/2013 and 2C_305/2013 were combined.

Considerations

The Federal Court (BGG) decided that the legal assessment of a final judgment referring a case back is binding for the authority to which the case is referred and also for the Federal Court itself. The lower court based its decision essentially on new, previously unexamined circumstances, leading to contradictory decisions. The Federal Court has bindingly decided that not the entire increase in assets of CHF 140,000 in the tax year 2007 may be offset as income.

The Federal Court examined whether the lower court based its decision essentially on such new, previously unexamined circumstances. The lower court applied a different legal assessment to the supplementary tax period 2001-2006 than to the tax period 2007. This approach runs counter to the guidelines of the Federal Court. The tax administration made the entire offset in the supplementary tax period 2001-2006, exercising its discretion.

The Federal Court decided that the tax administration was authorized to make a discretionary assessment, as the respondent in the supplementary tax procedure could not provide further information about her income and asset situation as well as her living costs in the supplementary…