The Supreme Tax Court has held that the pre-2008 disallowance of loan interest on related-party finance for the purchase of shares refers to direct investments only.
The finance ministry has announced that application of a Supreme Tax Court judgment exempting US profit-based interest from German taxis to be seen against the treaty override provision of 2006.
The Supreme Tax Court has held that payment of interest only if the payer remains profitable means that the payment is profit sharing and subject to withholding tax under the Austrian treaty.
The Supreme Tax Court has held that the hedge costs on a foreign currency loan are to be deducted from the interest received in calculating the net foreign income as the basis for the foreign tax credit available.
The Supreme Tax Court has held that a write-off of an irrecoverable related-party loan is not subject to income adjustment under the arm’s length rules, although the interest rate should reflect the bad debt risk.
The Supreme Tax Court has held that declining rate interest on a loan should be taken to prepaid expense and then written off in equal portions over the term of the loan, unless the borrower had an early repayment facility without a claim for partial refund of the higher interest paid.
If a majority shareholder and the company decide that the interest maturity date from a loan granted to the company should be extended, the interest does not immediately accrue to the shareholder if the amendment was concluded prior to the original interest due date. According to the Supreme Tax Court, this applies irrespective of whether the terms and circumstances of the prolongation are customary and in line with arm's length principles.
In a recent judgment the Supreme Tax Court held that the granting of a loan at an interest rate which is not customary in the market is subject to gift tax as gratuitous contribution. When calculating the interest advantage the standard (typically used) interest rate of 5.5% as mentioned in Section 15 (1) of the Valuation Act cannot be applied if a lower market value for comparable loans has been established.
The ECJ has upheld the German disallowance of one-half of the long-term interest expense for trade tax as not conflicting with the Interest and Royalties Directive.
An ECJ advocated general has suggested the court rule that the German trade tax interest disallowance is not a "withholding tax" banned by the Interest and Royalties Directive.
The Supreme Tax Court has held that a foreign limited partner must accept attribution of the shares in a British distributor company held by the partners to the partnership. In consequence, the interest on a shareholder loan falls to the partnership, where it is requalified as trading income. The interest clause in the double tax treaty with the partner’s home country is inapplicable.
The Supreme Tax Court has refused a company a write-down to current market value of an interest-free long-term loan asset on the grounds that ultimate repayment was not in doubt and that the value impairment was therefore only temporary.
The Supreme Tax Court has upheld the German disallowance of one-half of the long-term interest expense for trade tax as not conflicting with the Interest and Royalties Directive and not infringing the German/Dutch tax treaty prohibition on discrimination.
In a decision published on 14 December 2023 on Section 4 (4a) of the German Income Tax Act (restriction of deductible interest expense in the case of excess drawings), the Supreme Tax Court decided that the rule whereby Section 4 (4a) Income Tax Act (ITA) is to be applied for each business in isolation – a so-called business-related application - also applies to multi-level partnership structures. As a result, the transfer of a rolled-over profit in accordance with Section 6b ITA (roll-over relief) to another legal entity does not lead to a contribution to the transferring legal entity - (i.e. a contribution which would reduce the level of excess drawings) - due to the fact that no contributable asset was involved.
A shareholder loan granted to an asset-managing partnership is not recognized from a tax point of view insofar as the company's loan liability is attributable to its shareholder for tax purposes (Section 39 (2) no. 2 of the German Fiscal Code). According to a recent decision of the Supreme Tax Court, the loan agreement neither leads to deductible income-related expenses for the borrower nor to income from capital assets for the lender but is rather considered a tax-neutral contribution. This would be different only in the case of commercially active partnerships.
A shareholder loan granted to an asset-managing partnership is not recognized from a tax point of view insofar as the company's loan liability is attributable to its shareholder for tax purposes (Section 39 (2) no. 2 of the German Fiscal Code). According to a recent decision of the Supreme Tax Court, the loan agreement neither leads to deductible income-related expenses for the borrower nor to income from capital assets for the lender but is rather considered a tax-neutral contribution. This would be different only in the case of commercially active partnerships.
In a most recent judgment, the Supreme Tax Court decided on the transfer pricing method to determine an arm's length interest on intercompany loans. In its decision the highest tax court also provides some guidelines on the parameters to be observed from a purely tax point of view. Also, the court takes time to compare the adequacy of the various standard methods under review.
