Tax & Legal

The European Court of Justice must currently review an Italian regulation that prevents certain companies from benefiting from a more favorable rule regarding the deductibility of interest expenses in the case of a cross-border group taxation scheme solely because their common parent company is resident in another Member State. Advocate General Juliane Kokott presented her Opinion on the matter and suggests the court decide that such national legislation is not hindered by the freedom of establishment under Articles 49 and 54 TFEU.

The Federal Constitutional Court held that the retroactive introduction of Sec. 14 (3) Corporation Tax Act concerning the treatment of over-surrenders arising from periods prior to the membership in an Organschaft (tax consolidation group) to be in part unconstitutional and thus invalid.

In a recent case, the Supreme Tax Court decided that the liability of a controlled company (subsidiary) in a tax consolidation group (“Organschaft”) for the tax liability of its controlling company (parent in the Organschaft) is not necessarily limited to such taxes which arose during the existence of the Organschaft. The controlled company may be liable to the extent that the parent is required to pay tax on the controlled company’s turnover and may deduct input tax amounts from invoices for services obtained by the controlled company.

According to a decision of the Supreme Tax Court published on 9 November 2017 a profit pooling agreement will not be recognised for tax purposes where the compensation agreement with the external shareholder contains both the right to a variable compensation payment calculated on the basis of the profits of the subsidiary/controlled company/"Organgesellschaft" (“subsidiary”) and a fixed amount.