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...

Not all fruits are healthy; some fruits are poisonous.German prosecutors must wonder which oftheir collected ‘‘fruits’’ they can use against the hundredsof individuals that could be indicted for failing todeclare savings in Liechtenstein. What could turn outto be the biggest tax evasion...

No doubt Christopher Columbus would have feltshortchanged if he knew the continent he discovereddoes not carry his name. In 1507, when the cartographerMartin Waldseemüller designed his famousworld map, he searched for a name for the Terra Nova(New World) and chose America, after the...

It is more than just a rule. A statutory general antiabuserule is a statement — a statement of tax jurisdictions,whether the lawmaker or the judges are primarilyin charge of targeting the cases that lack bothsubstance and business reasons. Most countries in continentalEurope incorporated a...

All good comes at a price. The German corporatetax reform is good overall,1 but the major benefit,the tax rate cut, comes with a tightened andhighly detrimental change of ownership rule. TheGerman term Mantelkauf, literally translated as‘‘coat purchase,’’ is deceiving — it sounds and...

Even if a tax planning structure is legal, it canstill be ‘‘unwanted.’’ However, those structuresmight soon be wanted — for disclosure. ‘‘Unwanted’’structures do not violate the letter of the law, butstill might infringe on the spirit of the law.[...]