Tax for refinance

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
1
Dear expats,

I'm observing the real-estate market and chatted with a friend from VS. He told me that he recently want to refinance his property and find out that he need to pay taxes. It seems that he didn't know it to the details and he didn't do the refinance. This is something I heard for the first time.

I'm curious to find out what is the tax he talks about. Is it because of the appreciation and a refinance too close to his purchase made him pay tax on a short term real-estate capital gain? What else can it be?

Thank you!

2
What do you mean by „refinancing“?

Increasing the mortgage and taking capital out of the property will attract capital gains (Eigenmietwert) ...

3
I meant my friend own the property for a few years, he had a mortgage of course, then I think "refinance" means that he would like to increase the mortgage because the property worth more.

I have the same feeling that this could be a tax on capital gain. Are there case studies or formal analysis about this scenario?