Some people must have asked themselves, what’s so special about a Swiss Holding Company compared to an EU-Holding-company. However it’s a fact, that the Swiss holdings are criticised and flacked by the politicians and tax authorities of foreign countries – even though most of the people do not know why – except that it is a “Swiss Holding Company” and there must be something wrong with it.

First we need to know, that Swiss taxes are divided in different tax-authorities that raise taxes: federal taxes, cantonal and communal taxes. The tax-rate for federal taxes of corporate entities is 8.5%. The regular cantonal and communal taxes vary between 8 and 25%.

Second we need to understand that the Swiss Holding Company does not differentiate between whether it is domestic or foreign-owned and managed. Foreign shareholders are non-privileged towards Swiss owners. Furthermore , the Holding Company exempts – as well as the counterpart in the EU – all dividends from applicable participations from taxation.

 Now what the cantonal and communal taxes additionally exempt from taxation is ”other income” as for example interests, licence-fees or management-fees but only under the condition, that the company has the “holding-privilege” which is tied to the following requirements:

• 2/3 of the assets of a company have to be in qualifying shareholdings or
• 2/3 of the income have to come from qualifying shareholdings (dividends)

Then we have to consider, that the tax-exemption of other income is not valid for the federal taxes. This is a consquence of the existing autonomy of the cantons which prohibits Switzerland and the federal taxes to intrude into cantonal matters.

By the way: Dividends from a Swiss corporate entitiy are taxed with 35% source-tax (Verrechnungssteuer) – if the receiver of the dividends is not another corporate entitiy within the EU. In this case the ”notification procedure” is applicable. Of course the source tax can be refunded and/or applied for if there is a double taxation treaty between the two countries involved.

Author: Hugo Schauli, dipl. Wirtschaftsprüfer and Partner der Wirtschafts-Treuhand AG, Basel, Switzerland

hugo.schauli[@]wirtschafts-treuhand[.]ch
www.wirtschafts-treuhand.ch

Politically Germany is one of the driving forces of European unification. But all good intentions seem to vanish if money is involved. In this respect Germany’s finance minister is no different from others. He is responsible for drafting tax laws with doubtful EU-comparability.

A good indication that German tax law is not in line with EU law is the sheer number of cases in front of the European Court of Justice. No other European country produces more cases in regard to direct taxes. In the last ten to fifteen years Germany lost a lot of cases. And it looks as though many more are to follow. A German professional magazine publishes every year a list of tax provisions which might not be in line with EU law. This year’s list names 146 different provisions! And this list does not contain potential cases on indirect taxes such as Value Added Tax (VAT) or excise taxes on energy, tobacco or alcohol.

German tax law discriminates in certain cases against foreign enterprises as well as individuals. Anti-discrimination provisions of the EU-treaty are

• General freedom right/Right to choose residence
• Freedom for employees
• Freedom of trade
• Freedom to conduct services
• Right of establishment
• Freedom to transfer capital funds

For business activities e.g. the following German regulations can be subject to court cases:

• Deduction of foreign losses
• German thin capitalisation-regulations
• Capital gains taxation if assets are transferred abroad
• Taxation at source of dividends and profit distributions
• German CFC-regulations
• German restructuring regulations

The following German taxation of individuals may breech EU freedom rights:

• Deduction of foreign losses
• Deduction of personal allowances
• Taxation of foreign investment funds
• Extensive double taxation concerning inheritances and gifts

Enterprises and individuals from other EU-countries have good chances to argue against discriminating tax regulations. For enterprises and individuals resident in non-EU countries such as the USA or Switzerland, it is much more difficult to achieve protection of EU anti-discrimination jurisdiction. But it is not impossible. This is due to the fact that the Freedom to transfer capital funds provides cover to respective world-wide activities. Companies and individuals from non-EU countries who are subject to German taxation and feel discriminated by German tax legislation should always check whether appeals against tax assessments could prove to be successful.

But to be fair it has to be said that in recent years a lot of German tax provisions have been brought in line with EU law by the German government. But in many cases it was only after Germany lost cases in front of the European Court of Justice or German fiscal courts.

Glossary

Author: Peter Scheller, Somann & Scheller, www.somannscheller.de