Germany: Corporate Tax

The German Federal Constitutional Court is set to rule on the constitutionality of Section 8c of the Corporate Tax Act, which mandates complete forfeiture of tax losses when more than 50% of a corporation's shares change hands. The Hamburg Fiscal Court has supplemented its 2017 referral order with new details about a specific case where losses would be forfeited solely due to share acquisition, raising fundamental questions about whether this provision violates Germany's constitutional principle of equality

Germany has enacted significant reforms to its real estate transfer tax rules for share deals, addressing the controversial issue of double taxation that previously arose when signing and closing occurred at different times. The new legislation establishes a clear hierarchy between tax provisions and extends notification periods, fundamentally changing how M&A transactions involving real estate-owning companies are taxed.

The German Federal Fiscal Court has ruled on a critical question in insolvency taxation: when a creditor withdraws claims from insolvency proceedings, must the debtor derecognize the corresponding liability and recognize taxable income? This judgment clarifies the threshold required for liability derecognition and establishes important principles for restructuring scenarios.

Recent decisions by the German Federal Fiscal Court (BFH) on matters of Inheritance and Gift Tax (IGT) with regard to foreign trusts resolved some previous ambiguities about the Gift Tax treatment of trusts in Germany.

On March 24, 2021, the German government passed a draft bill for the modernization of corporate tax law.

Mit dem gestern vom Bundestag verabschiedeten Jahressteuergesetz 2020 ist der Gesetzgeber einen großen Schritt auf gemeinnützige Organisationen

The Mediation Committee of the German Bundestag and Bundesrat has recently proposed important changes in German tax law.

Corporate restructurings across the European Union have long been on the top of the agenda to accomplish the EU single market.

Today, amendments to the rules on German Group Taxation have been published in the German Federal Gazette.