The Latin principle pacta sunt servanda (‘‘agreementsmust be kept’’) serves as a cornerstone of socialinteraction, peace, and justice. If a breach of contractdid not have some sort of ramification, the motivationto stick to the stipulations of the treaty would decreasegreatly, the...

Many of our previous columns dealt with theframework and the aftermath of the major corporatetax reform (Unternehmenssteuerreformgesetz) in2008. The reform included a fundamental modificationof the German thin cap rule, or Zinsschranke (see TaxNotes Int’l, July 16, 2007, p. 263, Doc...

The tax issue causing uproar in Germany and Switzerlandhas all the ingredients for a good story. Itis about tax law, those who break it, and the ultimatequestion whether the government itself is infringing onthe law when buying stolen data. Moreover, it is aboutthe opinion of the vast majority...

The fight against tax havens has caused some majordistortions in the relationship between Germanyand Switzerland. Similar to the approach used in theUnited States in the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, Germanyintensified its measures to prevent tax evasion byits own citizens starting with a German...

It was a close call, but eventually the German legislativebody managed to save the Inheritance andGift Tax Act (Erbschafts- und Schenkungssteuergesetz)from being automatically abolished. In fact, abolishingthe inheritance tax is not an uncommon measure inCentral Europe. As of August 1, 2008,...

Germany passed legislation on September 19 thatmodifies the GmbH Act (GmbH-Gesetz), the InsolvencyAct (Insolvenzordnung), and the Stock CompanyAct (Aktiengesetz). The legal measure, called MoMiG(Gesetz zur Modernisierung des GmbH-Rechts und zurBekämpfung von Missbräuchen), will enter into...

International tax law is going through a period ofremarkable change. Trends come and go frequently;however, three trends have been steady and durable inthe last years.[...]

In this article, we use the expression ‘‘holding haven’’to describe a tax jurisdiction with a very attractivelegal framework for holding companies. Holdinghaven regimes are more sophisticated thanconventional tax haven regimes, demanding more infrastructureand business activities....

It used to be almost certain that the European Courtof Justice would follow the opinion of the advocategeneral in its judgment, but those days are gone. Thelatest examples of this change in heart are ColumbusContainer (C-298/05) and Lidl Belgium (C-414/06). (Forthe ECJ judgment in Columbus...

Some consider the issues in the European Court ofJustice’s Lidl Belgium (C-414/06) case to be a questionof symmetry in tax law. Others call the case‘‘Marks & Spencer revisited on the branch level.’’ In fact,both statements are correct. The question is whetherthe country of the head...