Cross-border tax-related matters

When tax considerations extend beyond national borders

Cross-bor­der mat­ters often involve com­plex inter­ac­tions between tax law and legal struc­tures. Nation­al rules over­lap, and the tax treat­ment fre­quent­ly depends on the under­ly­ing legal framework.

I advise you where inter­na­tion­al activ­i­ties require a legal assess­ment or where exist­ing struc­tures need to be reviewed in a cross-bor­der context.

This is par­tic­u­lar­ly rel­e­vant in sit­u­a­tions such as:

• inter­na­tion­al hold­ing or par­tic­i­pa­tion structures
• cross-bor­der busi­ness activ­i­ties or investments
• relo­ca­tion of assets or busi­ness operations
• coop­er­a­tion with for­eign enti­ties or shareholders
• coor­di­na­tion between tax advi­sors in dif­fer­ent jurisdictions

The aim is to pro­vide a legal­ly sound assess­ment, tak­ing into account tax impli­ca­tions, eco­nom­ic con­text, and the inter­ac­tion of dif­fer­ent legal systems.

Advising on international constellations

Inter­na­tion­al ele­ments have become increas­ing­ly com­mon in tax-relat­ed advi­so­ry work. Entre­pre­neurs, share­hold­ers and pri­vate indi­vid­u­als fre­quent­ly oper­ate across bor­ders – for exam­ple through relo­ca­tion, for­eign invest­ments or inter­na­tion­al cor­po­rate structures.

Typ­i­cal issues include:

• relo­ca­tion into or out of a jurisdiction
• dou­ble tax­a­tion of income or assets
• share­hold­ings in for­eign entities
• cross-bor­der restructurings
• legal safe­guard­ing of inter­na­tion­al­ly ori­ent­ed tax planning

In such cas­es, I assist in clar­i­fy­ing the legal frame­work and devel­op­ing sus­tain­able solutions.

I have pub­lished exten­sive­ly on exit tax­a­tion (§ 6 Ger­man For­eign Tax Act) and the imple­men­ta­tion of the EU Anti-Tax Avoid­ance Direc­tive (ATAD). A selec­tion of these con­tri­bu­tions is avail­able in the sec­tion Pub­li­ca­tions.

Typ­i­cal cross-bor­der con­stel­la­tions and their legal impli­ca­tions are fur­ther dis­cussed in the arti­cle Cross-Bor­der Mat­ters Require Coor­di­nat­ed Legal and Tax Per­spec­tives.

Interface between tax law, corporate law and international context

Cross-bor­der mat­ters are often not only tax-dri­ven, but also shaped by cor­po­rate law con­sid­er­a­tions. Own­er­ship struc­tures, lia­bil­i­ty issues and cor­po­rate gov­er­nance arrange­ments must be aligned with mul­ti­ple legal systems.

My advice focus­es on the legal imple­men­ta­tion and safe­guard­ing of tax-dri­ven con­cepts, tak­ing into account how nation­al and inter­na­tion­al rules inter­act and where real­is­tic legal options exist.

Cooperation with tax advisers and international partners

I reg­u­lar­ly work with tax advis­ers and am often involved where cross-bor­der tax mat­ters require in-depth legal review. Tax analy­sis and cal­cu­la­tions are typ­i­cal­ly han­dled by the tax advis­er, while I focus on legal struc­tur­ing and implementation.

Where nec­es­sary, I coor­di­nate with for­eign advis­ers or lawyers to ensure that local legal speci­fici­ties are prop­er­ly tak­en into account. 

In prac­tice, such mat­ters are reg­u­lar­ly han­dled in close coor­di­na­tion with tax advis­ers. Fur­ther infor­ma­tion can be found under Coop­er­a­tion with Tax Advis­ers.

Thorough analysis instead of standard solutions

Cross-bor­der tax-relat­ed mat­ters rarely allow for stan­dard­ised answers. Dif­fer­ences between legal sys­tems, inter­na­tion­al agree­ments and indi­vid­ual cir­cum­stances require care­ful and struc­tured legal analysis.

My approach is there­fore focused on devel­op­ing legal­ly robust solu­tions rather than pro­vid­ing short-term assess­ments with­out detailed review.

Suitable cases

This type of advice is par­tic­u­lar­ly suit­able for clients

• plan­ning or review­ing cross-bor­der structures
• work­ing with advi­sors in mul­ti­ple jurisdictions
• requir­ing legal clar­i­ty in com­plex inter­na­tion­al matters

It is gen­er­al­ly not suit­able where only a quick pre­lim­i­nary opin­ion with­out in-depth analy­sis is required.