Cooperation with Tax Advisers

Complementary Legal Advice on Tax and Corporate Law Matters

Tax plan­ning and changes to busi­ness struc­tures often require close coor­di­na­tion between tax advis­ers and legal coun­sel. Par­tic­u­lar­ly in rela­tion to cor­po­rate and share­hold­ing struc­tures, reor­gan­i­sa­tions and cross-bor­der mat­ters, dif­fer­ent legal and tax require­ments inter­act and need to be con­sid­ered together.

As a Ger­man attor­ney-at-law and cer­ti­fied spe­cial­ist in tax law (Fachan­wältin für Steuer­recht), I work along­side tax advis­ers and com­ple­ment their ser­vices by pro­vid­ing inde­pen­dent legal advice.

This includes the legal assess­ment of tax mat­ters, cor­po­rate law arrange­ments, con­trac­tu­al agree­ments and the exam­i­na­tion of legal risks and lia­bil­i­ty issues.

The aim is to pro­vide coor­di­nat­ed advice that brings togeth­er tax con­sid­er­a­tions and legal require­ments while main­tain­ing a clear dis­tinc­tion between the pro­fes­sion­al respon­si­bil­i­ties of those involved.

Independent Legal Advice and Clearly Defined Responsibilities

Coop­er­a­tion with tax advis­ers is based on a clear divi­sion of responsibilities.

Tax advis­ers are pri­mar­i­ly respon­si­ble for ongo­ing tax com­pli­ance, the prepa­ra­tion of tax returns, tax fil­ings and the asso­ci­at­ed calculations.

My work includes inde­pen­dent legal advice on tax law mat­ters as well as the legal struc­tur­ing and imple­men­ta­tion of cor­po­rate and con­trac­tu­al arrangements.

This may involve exam­in­ing spe­cif­ic tax law ques­tions, draft­ing cor­po­rate agree­ments, imple­ment­ing tax-dri­ven cor­po­rate struc­tures and assess­ing lia­bil­i­ty and respon­si­bil­i­ty issues.

Addi­tion­al legal advice may also be appro­pri­ate dur­ing tax audits or dis­putes with the Ger­man tax authorities.

The pur­pose of this coop­er­a­tion is not to replace exist­ing rela­tion­ships with tax advis­ers. Rather, it is to bring togeth­er the respec­tive pro­fes­sion­al exper­tise where it is needed.

Typical Areas of Cooperation

Coop­er­a­tion with tax advis­ers may be par­tic­u­lar­ly use­ful in the fol­low­ing situations:

• For­ma­tion, restruc­tur­ing and reor­gan­i­sa­tion of companies
• Struc­tur­ing and legal review of hold­ing and share­hold­ing arrangements
• Changes in share­hold­ers, includ­ing the admis­sion or depar­ture of shareholders
• Draft­ing and amend­ment of arti­cles of asso­ci­a­tion and share­hold­ers’ agreements
• Legal imple­men­ta­tion of tax-dri­ven arrangements
• Busi­ness suc­ces­sion and trans­fers of assets
• Inter­na­tion­al share­hold­ing and cor­po­rate structures
• Tax law dis­putes and dis­agree­ments with the Ger­man tax authorities
• Lia­bil­i­ty and respon­si­bil­i­ty issues aris­ing from busi­ness decisions

Legal advice may be incor­po­rat­ed at the ini­tial stage of devel­op­ing a tax plan­ning con­cept or become nec­es­sary lat­er when spe­cif­ic legal ques­tions arise.

Fur­ther infor­ma­tion on these mat­ters is avail­able under “Tax-Dri­ven Cor­po­rate Struc­tures”.

Legal Support in Disputes with the Tax Authorities

Not every tax law ques­tion can be resolved sole­ly through cal­cu­la­tions or the appli­ca­tion of admin­is­tra­tive tax guidance.

Where the tax author­i­ties take a dif­fer­ent legal view of a mat­ter, the inter­pre­ta­tion of tax leg­is­la­tion, the assess­ment of the under­ly­ing facts and the devel­op­ment of legal argu­ments may become par­tic­u­lar­ly important.

I assist clients and their tax advis­ers in exam­in­ing such ques­tions from a legal per­spec­tive and devel­op­ing an appro­pri­ate course of action.

Fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tions are dis­cussed in my arti­cle “When Tax Argu­ments Require Legal Sup­port”.

Direct Engagement or Cooperation with Existing Advisers

Legal advice can be pro­vid­ed in dif­fer­ent ways.

Busi­ness­es, entre­pre­neurs, share­hold­ers and pri­vate indi­vid­u­als may instruct me direct­ly on a legal mat­ter. Where a tax advis­er is already involved, I can coor­di­nate with them to the extent required.

Tax advis­ers may also sug­gest involv­ing me when their clients require addi­tion­al legal sup­port on par­tic­u­lar matters.

The nature and scope of the coop­er­a­tion depend on the cir­cum­stances. An engage­ment may involve a com­pre­hen­sive cor­po­rate law arrange­ment or the exam­i­na­tion of a sin­gle tax law or con­trac­tu­al question.

The respec­tive pro­fes­sion­al engage­ments, respon­si­bil­i­ties and areas of account­abil­i­ty are clear­ly defined.

Approach and Working Relationship

I place impor­tance on care­ful legal analy­sis, clear expla­na­tions of the rel­e­vant issues and effec­tive coor­di­na­tion with the oth­er advis­ers involved.

In more com­plex arrange­ments, it is often advis­able to con­sid­er legal require­ments at an ear­ly stage of tax plan­ning. This can help iden­ti­fy poten­tial con­flicts between tax objec­tives and cor­po­rate law or lia­bil­i­ty-relat­ed requirements.

My aim is to devel­op legal­ly sound and prac­ti­cal solu­tions that reflect my clients’ com­mer­cial and per­son­al interests.

Frankfurt am Main – Office Location

My law office is locat­ed in Taunus­Turm, in Frank­furt’s finan­cial district.

I work with tax advis­ers and clients based in Frank­furt, the Rhine-Main region and beyond. Coop­er­a­tion is also pos­si­ble in mat­ters with an inter­na­tion­al dimension.

Meet­ings can be arranged by pri­or appoint­ment, either in per­son at my office or via video conference.

Contact

Would you like legal advice on a tax or cor­po­rate law mat­ter, or would you like to explore whether addi­tion­al legal sup­port would be appro­pri­ate in an exist­ing client engagement?

You are wel­come to briefly out­line your enquiry. I will con­tact you to dis­cuss the appro­pri­ate next steps and the poten­tial scope of my engagement.