In a recently published circular, the Federal Ministry of Finance (MoF) commented on the minimum running period of profit and loss pooling agreements (PLPA) and on partnerships acting as controlling entities. The current letter now supersedes the previous letter on these subjects of 10 November 2005 in its entirety.
In a recently published judgment, the Supreme Tax Court held that the profit from the sale of the share in a project company in the legal form of a partnership (GmbH & Co. KG) is not included in the trading income of the plaintiff, a limited liability company (GmbH), because the conditions for trade tax liability - namely, the operation of a business as defined in Section 2 (1) Sentence 1 of the Trade Tax Act - were not (yet) met.
UPDATE: In its session on 25 June 2021, the Bundesrat gave its approval to the Act to Modernise Corporate Income Tax Law. The Bundesrat thus followed the recommendation of the Finance Committee. The law is should enter into force on 1 January 2022.