Court issues judgment A woman from Aargau sends money to her mother in Thailand - and wants to deduct it from her taxes
A woman from Aargau transferred money to her mother in Thailand over several years. She wanted to claim these payments for tax purposes. The case ended up in court.
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- For years, a woman from Aargau declared a four-figure amount in her tax return to support her mother.
- Suddenly, however, the municipality rejected it.
- The reason: the transfer to the mother had been made from her son's account and therefore not from the taxpayer herself.
- The case has now ended up in court.
A woman from Aargau is allowed to retroactively deduct the financial support for her mother living in Thailand from her taxes. The Special Administrative Court of Aargau has upheld her appeal and overturned the decision of the municipality and the cantonal tax office, writes the "Aargauer Zeitung".
In her 2022 tax return, the taxpayer had claimed a support deduction of CHF 2,400 for her 74-year-old mother, who lives in Bangkok and is considered to have no assets or income.
The municipality denied the deduction on the grounds that the transfer to the mother was made from the son's account - and therefore not from the taxpayer herself.
The woman argued that the support had been going through her son's account for years because his bank charged lower transfer fees to Thailand.
She backed up her statement with a bank statement showing that she had transferred CHF 3,000 to her son in January 2022 with the note "Transit Mom Bkk", of which CHF 2,400 was intended as maintenance for the mother.
Mother receives 15 francs a month from the state
Subsequently, the tax office also requested a current consulate or embassy confirmation of the mother's need as well as an official certificate of her income and assets in 2022.
The woman from Aargau claimed that no such documents existed. However, she submitted a certificate from the responsible district office from 2014, according to which the mother is widowed, has no gainful employment, no income and receives only 600 baht (around 15 francs) per month from the state, writes the "Aargauer Zeitung".
In its ruling, the special administrative court stated that the district office certificate was sufficient proof of the mother's need for support.
It recognized the deduction of CHF 2,400, which reduced the woman's taxable income to CHF 90,100. The amount in dispute was just under CHF 400 in taxes, and the costs of the proceedings were borne by the state, which also had to pay the Aargau woman CHF 600 in lawyer's fees.
