- 01.10.2026 - 07:30
Few issues in tax law are as controversially debated as cases of abuse in the refund of withholding tax. In practice, four cases of abuse have emerged over the past decades in which the refund of withholding tax is denied. These are the old reserves practice, constructive liquidation, international transposition, and extended international transposition.
Josiane Weder’s doctoral thesis provides the first comprehensive and concise analysis of the legal bases underlying these cases: tax avoidance pursuant to Art. 21 para. 2 of the Swiss Withholding Tax Act (WHTA) and the Principal Purpose Test pursuant to Art. 29 para. 9 of the OECD Model Tax Convention (OECD MTC). The central focus of the thesis is the question of whether and to what extent the four cases of abuse are compatible with these two legal bases. The thesis makes an important contribution to this complex and highly relevant area of tax law and, consequently, to the further development of tax law.
The book has just been published and is available from Stämpfli Verlag:
