The Supreme Tax Court decided that a simply signed legal statement prepared by an attorney does not meet the requirements for electronic legal communications under the Code of Procedure of Fiscal Courts unless it is transmitted to the court via a designated transmission channel specified therein. In the event the deadline for filing a lawsuit has been missed, reinstatement into the status quo ante may be granted regardless of the plaintiffs‘ fault if the court itself violated its duty of care.
On 2 July 2026, as part of the Federal Government's Programme for Economic Recovery and Employment, the coalition parties announced the results of the coalition committee’s deliberations. These also include changes to tax law.
In its decision of today, the General Court held that the VAT exemption for “the management of credit by the person granting it” under Article 135(1)(b) of the VAT Directive does not apply in a case where the credit is sold to a third company and whilst the management of that credit is retained by the seller.
On 24 June 2026, the European Commission published two packages aimed at simplifying various corporate tax directives. The first package, a so-called “Tax Omnibus Package” proposes changes to the Parent-Subsidiary Directive, the Interest and Royalties Directive, and the Merger and Dispute Resolution Directives. The second package is intended to serve as a “DAC Recast,” under which certain thresholds for reporting obligations will be modified or abolished, corporate groups subject to Pillar 2 will generally be exempted from DAC6, and other amending directives related to DAC (the Mutual Assistance Directive) will be adapted or consolidated. The packages are designed to modernise the EU's direct tax framework, make it more efficient and better adapt it to the current economic environment, whi ...
In a recent judgment, the Supreme Tax Court decided that a complaint filed by a tax advisor in an incorrect file format is still valid if the case files at the tax court are still maintained in paper form and the complaint is printed out and added to the file there.
In a recent judgment, the Supreme Tax Court decided that the comparative prices for real estate determined by expert committees are, in principle, binding and must therefore be used by the tax authorities and taxpayers when valuing real estate for inheritance and gift tax purposes.
Digitalization is also finding its way to the input VAT refund procedure. To meet the requirements for applications submitted after 31 December 2025, supporting documentation for refund applications from taxable persons (businesses) not established in an EU Member State must in future be provided in digital format.
If a taxpayer who has incurred expenses for the maintenance of a historic building used as his or her primary residence dies before the end of the ten-year deduction period, the right to claim the deduction generally does not pass to the heir. With its most recently published decision the Supreme Tax Court confirmed its earlier case law in similar situations.
In a landmark judgment, the ECJ decided that attributing voting rights based on "acting in concert" without an explicit agreement, as in Section 34( 2) Sentence 1 2nd alternative of the Securities Trading Act, is incompatible with EU law.
Article 19 of the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) requires executives of publicly traded companies and persons closely associated with them to report Managers' Transactions in financial instruments conducted on their own account to the issuer and to the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) if a certain threshold is exceeded. The new threshold was implemented in Germany by BaFin in conjunction with the EU Listing Act.
In her Opinion, the Advocate General suggested the European Court of Justice decide that Luxembourg has fulfilled its obligation to transpose the Anti-Tax-Avoidance-Directive (ATAD) into national law by including so called securitization companies in the list of 'financial undertakings' for which the interest limitation rule set forth in Article 4 ATAD is not applicable.
In a request for a preliminary ruling from Sweden regarding the refund of withholding tax, the ECJ is asked whether a recalculation of the loss in accordance with the rules of the source State is required for a loss-making non-resident company receiving dividends to benefit from the same treatment as a loss-making resident company. In his Opinion, the Advocate General considers such requirements to be an unjustified and disproportionate burden on foreign corporate entities and a violation of Article 63 TFEU.
According to the Münster Tax Court, the exemption in Section 3 No. 3 of the German Real Estate Transfer Tax Act (RETTA), regarding the settlement of estates, does not apply to a unification (concentration) of shares taxable under Section 1 (3) No. 1 RETTA if the company shares have already been transferred to the heirs by way of singular succession prior to the settlement of the estate.
The Supreme Tax Court decided that so-called “consolidation gain” from the settlement of liabilities and receivables following a universal transfer of assets from a French Société à Responsabilité Limitée (SARL) to its sole shareholder GmbH cannot be neutralized off-balance-sheet in analogy to Section 8b (3) Sentence 8 of the Corporation Tax Act.
In a recent decision, the Supreme Tax Court stated that, for reasons of equity, a different assessment of inheritance tax is possible in the absence of enrichment, provided it is established that the recipient was not otherwise enriched because he or she was entitled to claims for restitution or compensation for lost value.
In its judgment of 9 April 2026 – VI R 1/24, the Supreme Tax Court ruled that, under the Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation concluded between the Republic of Cyprus and the Federal Republic of Germany (Cyprus DTA 2011), Germany had, as the state of residence, the right to tax the employment income of a German resident employee, who was working on board a vessel engaged in domestic maritime transport. Furthermore, it clarified that a ‘vessel engaged in inland waterway transport’ within the meaning of the Cyprus DTA 2011 is only one that operates exclusively on inland waterways situated within the mainland.
The Bundesrat has tabled a draft bill (21/6377) aimed at strengthening asset recovery in relation to Cum/Ex short-selling transactions and all those involved. The aim is to clarify that confiscation from a third party is unambiguously possible even if that party received the proceeds ‘for the offence’ as an “advanced payment”.
In a case concerning VAT for services supplied electronically by a German GmbH through an app store operated by an Irish company, the Supreme Tax Court held that the place of supply of such services to the customers (non-taxable persons) was in Ireland and - pending further facts still to be ascertained by the lower tax court in a second hearing - no German VAT arises.
