Dismissal of the appeal against the refusal to consider the appeal due to late payment of court costs advance

Facts

The appellant, [X.] , had filed a complaint with the Federal Tax Administration (FTA) because he believed that he did not owe value-added tax for the tax periods from the first quarter of 2004 to the fourth quarter of 2008. However, the FTA had decided that the appellant owed value-added tax of CHF 14'881.-- plus default interest. The appellant appealed to the Federal Administrative Court, which, however, did not consider the appeal because the appellant had not paid the court costs advance on time.

The appellant then applied for reinstatement and claimed that he had been unable to pay the court costs advance on time due to technical problems with electronic data processing. However, the Federal Administrative Court rejected the application, and the appellant appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court examined its jurisdiction and the admissibility of the appeal and came to the conclusion that the appeal in public law matters was to be brought before the Federal Supreme Court. The Federal Supreme Court applied the law ex officio and examined whether the lower court had rightly dismissed the appeal.

The Federal Supreme Court came to the conclusion that the taxable person had missed the deadline for paying the court costs advance without fulfilling a statutory ground for reinstatement. The Federal Supreme Court found that the taxable person could not invoke the misconduct of a third party (the provider) to…