On 17 May 2024, the Federal Ministry of Finance (MoF) sent a draft bill for the Finance Act 2024 (FA 2024) to the professional associations for comments by 24 May 2024. The draft has now also been published on the MoF website. The law is intended to implement changes to various areas of German tax law which need adjustment. The focus is on adjustments required by EU law and case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the German Federal Constitutional Court, and the German Supreme Tax Court. Furthermore, follow-up amendments to previous legislative changes will be made. This blog summarises the key content. - Meanwhile the Federal Cabinet has approved the draft bill (see Update further below at the end of this post).
At its closed-door meeting in Meseberg on 30.8.2023, the Federal Cabinet adopted the government draft for a law to enhance growth opportunities, investment, and innovation as well as tax simplification and tax fairness (Growth Opportunities Act).
In its ruling of 21 February 2022 (I R 13/19), the Supreme Tax Court rejected the tax office's appeal against the ruling of the Lower Saxony Tax and ruled that the (retroactive) change of legal form of a partnership into a corporation under Section 25 Sentence 1 in conjunction with Section§ Section 20 (1) Reorganisations Tax Act is prohibited for tax purposes if, at the time of the resolution to convert, the partnership changing its legal form no longer engages in a commercial activity