Tax & Legal

The new External Audit Regulation (EAR) replaces the previous regulations from 2000 and are designed to modernize and expedite external tax audits. The tax administration should focus even more strongly on matters relevant to tax risks, particularly cross-border intra-group transactions involving transfer pricing issues.

In a most current judgment, the European Court of Justice held in favor of the applicant, namely that adjustments of the transfer prices of motor vehicles between manufacturers and distributors based on the warranty costs and operating costs incurred by the purchaser are not consideration for a supply of services subject to VAT. However, with one caveat: The situation would be different if the parties concluded a service agreement to that effect.

In a preliminary request from Romania the European Court of Justice was asked, i. a., whether the amounts invoiced by a parent company to a subsidiary established in another Member State using the transactional net margin method (a method recommended by the OECD Guidelines) may constitute a consideration for a supply of services for consideration which falls within the scope of the VAT Directive. In its judgment the ECJ answered in the affirmative.

New "Administrative Principles Transfer Pricing - Principles for the Adjustment of In-come Pursuant to Section 1 of the External Tax Relations Act".

On Friday, December 16, 2022, the German Federal Council approved the law already adopted by the German Parliament to implement Council Directive (EU) 2021/514 of 22 March 2021 amending Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation and modernizing the law on tax procedure.

On 20 December 2016 legislation was passed introducing measures to combat base erosion and profit shifting. A part of this legislation - introduced in the new Section 138a of the General Tax Code - imposed an obligation on multinational enterprises to report annually for each tax jurisdiction in which they do business, so-called Country-by-Country (CbC) reports.

The Supreme Tax Court has held that internal or other restrictions on the excise of ownership rights do not obviate an association by common shareholding of more than 25%. It has also held that the application of the transfer pricing documentation rules to cross-border transactions only is, while discriminatory, justified by the need to protect tax revenue.

The Supreme Tax Court has rejected a tax office assessment attempt on the basis of a hidden distribution of profits because of a delay in agreeing management charges in writing, saying that the double tax treaty related party provision bases the arm’s length standard on amount, rather than on the reason for, or documentation, of a transaction.