The Federal Court does not agree with Christian Constantin. The High Court confirms a judgment of the Cantonal Court of Friborg against which the Valais businessman had appealed. The entrepreneur will have to pay tax arrears to the canton of Fribourg.
The dispute related to approximately one million francs in profits attributed to the Friborg subsidiary of Christian Constantin SA, particularly active in architecture and real estate. This sum would have been overtaxed by the Friborg Contribution Service for the 2018 tax period, according to the Valais businessman.
In November 2020, the Friborg tax authorities had in fact retained a taxable profit of more than 2.6 million francs in the canton of Fribourg, i.e. approximately one million francs more than what had been decided following an agreement. with the Valais tax authorities, which set the taxable shares in the cantons of Valais, Vaud, Geneva and Fribourg. Christian Constantin was then opposed to this Friborg taxation. This is how the file arrived in the hands of the Cantonal Court of Fribourg.
According to the judgment rendered by the latter, the boss of FC Sion would have optimized the profits of his company for tax purposes by using the artifice of sponsorship in favor of his other company, Olympique des Alpes SA, linked to FC Sion.
>> More details: The agreement between the Valais tax authorities and Christian Constantin is debated
The question of “sponsorship”
Indeed, the agreement that had been made between the State of Valais and the businessman offered Christian Constantin SA the possibility of deducting more than 3.7 million francs in sponsorship expenses.
In other words, the agreement allowed Christian Constantin to pay, in return for sponsorship, this sum to the boss of FC Sion, that is to say… to Christian Constantin himself.
For the Friborg Court, this notion of “sponsorship” posed a problem. But in the eyes of the Valais promoter, it is a classic and transparent sponsorship counter-case, because the money would have been used in particular to finance meals for FC Sion players or to pay for costs related to the plane. president of the football club.
Judgment confirmed by the Federal Court
For the Cantonal Court, it was more of a financial sleight of hand intended to hide profits. The Federal Court agreed with him. He believes that, through his two companies, Christian Constantin has self-distributed the profits he wanted to avoid the tax authorities. He will therefore have to pay more taxes to the Canton of Fribourg. In addition, he will have to pay the legal costs.
Neither the Friborg and Valais tax authorities, nor Christian Constantin have yet commented on this verdict.
Fabrice Gaudiano/ami