According to the Cologne Tax Court, the preclusion of German employees resident in Switzerland for full assessment of German income tax is contrary to EU law. The court has referred the case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a preliminary ruling with respect to the Agreement for the Free Movement of Persons between the EU and Switzerland.
The transfer of know-how by a foreign creditor for an unlimited period may lead to limited income tax liability in Germany by way of tax withholding. The fact that the know-how must be used domestically in order to trigger German withholding tax does, according to the Supreme Tax Court, not require that the know-how also had the specified scope, substance and quality to fulfill the purposes pursued in the domestic market.
Interest received by a US limited liability company from convertible bonds issued by a German debtor is subject to German withholding tax pursuant to Sec. 49 (1) No. 5 letter a Income Tax Act. This also applies if partial debentures were issued for these bonds. With its decision, the Supreme Tax Court put an end to the existing discussions and differing opinions in the professional literature regarding the correlation of two provisions in the Income Tax Act on that subject.
According to a judgment of the Supreme Tax Court, a U.S. citizen with limited tax liability in Germany is not entitled to the right of full tax assessment for income from employment even if he lives in an EU or EEA state (here: the Netherlands). The non-discrimination clause in Article 24 of the German/US double tax treaty does not give rise to a claim to equal treatment with a German national with limited tax liability.
