PRECEDENT: THE FEDERAL COURT CLARIFIES: NATURALIZED MEN WHO DID NOT PERFORM MILITARY SERVICE DO NOT HAVE TO PAY A RETROACTIVE SUBSTITUTE LEVY

Since the beginning of 2019, it has been the case that the Swiss military tax must be paid not only until the age of 30, but until the age of 37. Thousands of Swiss nationals naturalized before 2019 have since received retroactive bills for the military service tax because they had not served in previous years.

Those who refused to pay the bill because military service was not actually obligatory under the previous law for the period in which the bill was issued either went unheard or were dismissed with the argument that military service was a “permanent matter”. The Federal Supreme Court now decided otherwise: “The legislator refrained from extending the temporal scope of the new regulation to the period before its entry into force” (Federal Supreme Court decision: 2C_1005/2021). It follows that naturalized men who did not have to perform military service do not in fact have to pay a substitute levy retroactively. The offices for military service substitution are required to implement this case law.

Were you (wrongly) requested to pay the substitute tax retroactively? We will be happy to check whether you are obliged to do so under new federal court rulings.

Judgment of the Federal Court: 2C_1005/2021 (https://entscheidsuche.ch/view/CH_BGer_002_2C-1005-2021_2022-04-26)

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