The ECJ has held that a German provision for the taxation of deemed income from foreign investment funds outside the EU that do not comply with the German disclosure requirements falls under the “grandfather” clause of Art 64 of the TFEU allowing restrictions on the free movement of capital to and from third countries on December 31, 1993 to continue in force.
The finance ministry has published a list of documents to be produced by unit holders in “non-transparent” investment funds if they wish to avoid taxation on punitive deemed income.
The Supreme Tax Court has held that a dividend payable by a solvent subsidiary to its shareholder with a controlling interest is generally taxable income for the latter on the date of the resolution regardless of a resolution for a later date of payment.
On 25 January 2017 the federal government approved a draft of the Act to Combat Harmful Tax Practices in connection with the Licensing of Rights. The intention is to prevent multinational businesses from transferring their royalty income to countries, which offer such income preferential treatment. Such preferential tax regimes (so-called Licence Boxes, Patent Boxes or IP-Boxes) are considered not to meet the demands of the OECD and G20 BEPS Project. A new provision is to be introduced to the Income Tax Act (ITA) for this purpose; the new provision should be applied to expenses arising after 31 December 2017.
