According to a decision of the Supreme Tax Court, the leasing instalments paid in cases of refinancing by a leasing company were also to be included in the calculation of the trade tax base.
In the case of a one-time brokerage service, the entire fee is subject to VAT in the year in which the service is rendered. This also applies if payment of the fee is spread in equal annual installments over the subsequent years. With its decision the European Court of Justice (ECJ) answers the request for a preliminary ruling submitted by the Federal Tax Court and confirms its case law that VAT is due at the time services are supplied, even where payment relating to the transaction carried out was not yet received.
In a preliminary request from Poland the European Court of Justice decided that the consumer can recover part of the commission linked to the granting of credit if he or she has not been informed that this commission is not dependent of the duration of the contract. The same applies if the consumer has paid that commission in a single instalment when concluding the mortgage agreement.
In a recent decision, the Supreme Tax Court established legal certainty for parents who, as part of an anticipated succession plan, agree with their children during their lifetime on a waiver of the statutory share of the inheritance in exchange for a lump-sum payment. The judges at the highest tax court made it clear that such lump-sum payments, even if paid in installments, are not subject to tax as capital investment income or other income.
The Supreme Tax Court decided that maintenance fees incurred under leasing agreements must also be added back to the income subject to trade income tax.
The Supreme Tax Court decided that the tax reduction for energy-related measures, such as the installation of a modern boiler, can only be granted once the installation has been carried out and the invoice amount has been transferred in full to the account of the installation company.
In a request for a preliminary ruling from the Supreme Court of Slovenia the European Court of Justice had the opportunity once again to comment on the invoice requirements, this time with respect to an input VAT deduction in the course of finance lease agreements in accordance with Article 203 of the VAT Directive 2006/112/EC.
Where an employer contractually obliges himself to make several payments to an employee in connection with a termination of employment, the payments will only be considered as a single uniform compensation payment if there is clear evidence that all instalments were paid "as compensation for lost income or expected loss of income".
In a reference for a preliminary ruling from the UK Upper Tribunal the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is asked whether the immediate tax charge on a transfer of assets from a UK resident company to a sister company resident in Switzerland (which does not carry on a trade in the UK through a permanent establishment) contrasts with EU-Law (Article 49 TFEU or Article 63 TFEU).
On 26 March 2026 the Council and the Parliament agreed to overhaul the EU customs framework, giving the Union a more modern toolbox to deal with trends such as huge increases in trade volumes, especially in e-commerce, a fast-growing number of EU standards that must be checked at the border and challenging geopolitical realities.
The Administrative Court Regulations are to be fundamentally revised. This should reduce the workload on administrative courts and speed up court proceedings. The Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection has published the first draft to this effect which was sent to the relevant associations for comment.
In its session of 21 February 2024, the Mediation Committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat concluded its negotiations in relation to the Act to Strengthen Growth Opportunities, Investment, and Innovation as well as Tax Simplification and Fairness
In a most recent decision, the Supreme Tax Court held that the actual costs for business mileage with a leased car in case of an up-front lease payment must be allocated to the individual assessment periods during the term of the lease agreement.
The payment for an eco-account connected to the property under state law is part of the consideration for the purchase of the property and must be included in the assessment basis for real estate transfer tax. This was decided by the Supreme Tax Court in a most recent judgment.
In its decision I R 37/22 of 5 November 2025, published on 12 March 2026, the Supreme Tax Court addresses the implementation of profit transfer agreements under Section 14(1), first sentence, no. 3, first sentence of the Corporation Tax Act. In particular, the Supreme Tax Court comments for the first time on the temporal requirements for the actual implementation of the profit transfer agreement.
In a recent judgment, the Supreme Tax Court decided that tax-relevant emails are generally subject to retention requirements as commercial and business correspondence and may be requested by the tax authorities during an external audit. This also applies to digital documentation on group transfer pricing, the Supreme Tax Court said.
If a notary fails to comply with his obligation to notify the tax office of legal transactions with relevance to real estate transfer tax within the two-week period as provided for by law he cannot apply for reinstatement into the status quo ante pursuant to Section 110 of the German Tax Code (AO) with respect to the missed notification deadline. This was decided by the Supreme Tax Court in three recently published judgments.
In a recently published decision, the Supreme Tax Court has, in some aspects, facilitated the tax recognition of employee-financed pension commitments for shareholder managing directors of a limited liability company (GmbH) but at the same time it also set some limits.
On 10 July 2025 the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) published a new draft bill to transpose the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) into German law. The previous federal government had already presented a draft bill to implement the CSRD. However, the legislative process was never completed. The CSRD aims to ensure that certain companies report on the social and environmental impacts and risks of their business activities. The aim of the draft bill is to implement the directive with as little bureaucracy as possible.
