Tax & Legal

An orchestra musician employed by a public corporation in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is an artist within the meaning of Article 16 (1) of the double tax treaty between Germany and Luxembourg. The Supreme Tax Court has recently decided that his salary is taxable in Germany as income from employment with a credit of the tax paid in Luxembourg.

The bonus paid to employees for work performed outside regular working hours (here: during the night-shift) that are remunerated separately must be determined based on the salary paid to the employee for regular working hours and not on the remuneration for the night-shift.

On 24 November 2023, the Bundesrat (Federal Council) approved the Future Financing Act, which the Bundestag had passed just a few days earlier on 17 November 2023. The law can now be submitted to the Federal President for signature by the Federal Government and then published.

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".

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) decided that the law requiring a French national resident in a third country to make social security contributions on income arising from assets was justifiable.