Tax Treaty Case Law around the Globe 2023

1. Introduction

After the Swiss Federal Supreme Court had had a go in 2014 at interpreting and applying a treaty provision that governed the wages received by professors and teachers, 2022 marked the first time that Switzerland’s top court was given the opportunity to expound on the taxation of students.

The case that allowed the court to do so involved a post-doc researcher who had been awarded a fairly large grant by the Swiss National Science Foundation, Switzerland’s premier science research support organization. Shortly upon receiving the first instalment, she and her husband moved to the Netherlands. The Zurich cantonal tax office initially proceeded to impose income taxes on the entire grant despite the fact that the researcher had only received a first instalment before moving abroad with the rest of the grant not becoming due for payment until after she had already established residence in the Netherlands. After several appeals and decisions of cantonal courts, the taxpayers ultimately brought their case before the Swiss Federal Supreme Court. Up until the Supreme Court, every single instance had reversed the decision of the instance preceding it, clearly indicating the degr...