On 9 November 2009, the German government announced a draft Act for the Acceleration of Economic Growth (Gesetz zur Beschleunigung des Wirtschaftswachstums or Wachstumsbeschleunigungsgesetz, hereinafter the “Economic Growth Act”.

This act is intended to implement some of the election pledges of the newly elected coalition government. The Economic Growth Act therefore contains several amendments to recent legislation intended to limit the negative consequences to the German economy resulting from the current economic crisis. Continue →

On 4 November 2009, the German Federal Finance Court published a decision from 25 August 2009 in which it held that the so-called “exit tax” imposed by Sec. 6 of the Foreign Tax Act (Außensteuergesetz or AStG), is compatible with the German Constitution and European law.

In the case under consideration, two spouses each held more than 25% of the shares of two German public limited companies Continue →