We, at DEHNEN., have been concerned about developments regarding taxpayers’ rights for a long time already – and now, the President of the German Federal Court of Finance, Rudolf Mellinghoff has also raised his voice according to our request: Stop criminalization of taxpayers! Continue →
Economic relations between Germany and Brazil will now be strengthened by the newly established honorary consulate in Düsseldorf (http://www.brasil-honorarkonsulat.de/). We therefore welcome Max Krieger, the new consul, in our office building!
Amongst Russia, India, China and South Africa, Brazil as one of the biggest emerging markets is an important strategic partner for Germany. Still, Brazilian economy struggles with the prejudice of corruption and has to improve its image to attract German business to “go Brazil” – where German technology and knowledge is very welcomed.
The absence of effective bilateral agreements complicates the economic relationships. The double taxation treaty of Germany and Brazil (as of 1975) was cancelled in 2005 because the German Federal Ministry of Finance did not see sufficient interest and cooperation from the Brazilian side as to renegotiate the treaty.
German export to Brazil easily exceeds the sum of German exports to Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Still, but politics rather spend energy on recovery of last-mentioned than to build up new bridges and to negotiate free trade agreements and double taxation treaties with the upcoming markets in Brazil.
Hopefully, the new consulate in Düsseldorf, state capital and important business location of North Rhine-Westphalia, will help to improve the situation!
Taxpayers with US nationality are facing several tax planning and compliance challenges these days. They are taxable in the USA with their worldwide income, regardless of their place of residence. And the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) lately focuses more and more on collection of taxes overseas and makes an effort to prevent tax evasion via foreign financial institutes. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) therefore shall serve these goals by several reporting requirements and thereby strives serious privacy concerns as well as data protection issues. Continue →
German VAT regulations are laid down in the Turnover Tax Act (UStG), the Turnover Tax Implementing Regulation (UStDV) and the Turnover Tax Guidelines (UStR). Since January 2012, a new provision of the Implementing Regulation (UStDV) has come into force which is accompanied by enormous problems for the business practice: The entry certificate was established. Continue →
German Tax Law is known worldwide for its complexity. And as every year, the legislative authority is now preparing the German Annual Tax Act, which is still at an early stage of the legislative process. In the following, we present you a selection of issues raised in the legislative procedure of the Annual Tax Act 2013: Continue →
Again, and only shortly after the last announcement of this kind in July, rumors have come up that the ministry of finance of North Rhine-Westphalia has bought even more CDs with valuable tax information from Switzerland. The federal state thereby contradicts the negotiated tax agreement, which was signed by the responsible authorities in September 2011 and was meant to become effective in 2013. Until now, the social democrats (SPD) and the green party (Grüne) are blocking the ratification of the agreement in the German Federal Council (Bundesrat) because they deem the agreement unfair to the broad mass of tax payers. Continue →
As of last Wednesday, August 1, 2012, the operational Porsche AG is a part of VW AG, as pronounced in the press in June 2012. Due to what is known to the public as a “tax deal”, this transaction was possible without a formal buy-out. Instead, the deal took the form of restructuring of the companies: VW gave one share to Porsche SE and therefore acquired the Porsche AG company on a purchase price of 4,46 billion Euros. The tax savings were estimated at about 1,5 billion Euros. Those taxes would have inured to the benefit of the federal state Baden-Württemberg, Porsche’s place of business. Continue →
Bundespräsident (Federal President) Christian Wulff has been the subject of tremendous public criticism for the last few months. Since his office and the cause of this uproar is relatively obscure in the political landscape, we will strive to outline what has incited the outrage and lay out possible scenarios. Continue →
For years, Germany has been struggling with its right extremist neo-nazi party, the so called NPD (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands). The party has, over the years been subject to numerous investigations regarding its constitutionality. In 2001, a suit for disbanding the party was filed with the Bundesverfassungsgericht (BVerfG), which ultimately had to be dismissed due to procedural errors in what is known in Germany as the “V-Mann-Affäre”. Continue →
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is back. After allegations of plagiarism against the former Minister of Defense surfaced just less than a year ago, Guttenberg has not been in the public eye very much. After his doctorate was taken back by the University of Bayreuth, the prime staff member of Angela Merkel’s cabinet absconded to the United States for some time, while waiting for the public debate to subside somewhat. Continue →
