Committee of the Council of States demands refund of Billag value-added tax
Billag has unjustly levied value-added tax for years. It remains to be seen whether the money must be paid back. The Telecommunications Committee of the Council of States (KVF) wants to oblige the Federal Council to do so.
The Telecommunications Commission of the Council of States has unanimously approved a motion from the National Council calling for a legal basis for the repayment of wrongly levied value-added tax. This was announced by the parliamentary services on Tuesday. The motion is openly worded and could be implemented by the Federal Council in line with a future decision by the Federal Supreme Court, the commission wrote. The latter is currently dealing with the question of whether the VAT must be repaid. However, the ruling does not apply generally, but only to those households that have sued for repayment in court.
According to the Federal Council, the total amount at stake is 153 million Swiss francs that have been collected since 2011 without a legal basis. The KVF rejected another motion of the sister commission demanding a retroactive period of five years. A Geneva-based initiative for automatic reimbursement also failed to find a majority. (SDA)
