German Tax Law Advice – Legal Advice for Businesses, Entrepreneurs and Private Clients

Tax mat­ters often affect not only a busi­ness but also the indi­vid­u­als behind it. Cor­po­rate deci­sions, own­er­ship struc­tures, per­son­al assets and fam­i­ly inter­ests are fre­quent­ly inter­con­nect­ed, giv­ing rise to legal and tax con­sid­er­a­tions that should be addressed together.

Attor­ney-at-law Sabine Unkel­bach-Tom­czak advis­es com­pa­nies, entre­pre­neurs, share­hold­ers, entre­pre­neur­ial fam­i­lies and high-net-worth indi­vid­u­als on Ger­man tax law mat­ters and tax-relat­ed legal structuring.

Her approach com­bines legal analy­sis with an under­stand­ing of the com­mer­cial, cor­po­rate and per­son­al cir­cum­stances involved. The objec­tive is to iden­ti­fy tax-relat­ed legal risks, assess avail­able struc­tur­ing options and devel­op legal­ly sound solutions.

Tax Law Advice for Businesses and Entrepreneurs

Busi­ness deci­sions fre­quent­ly have sig­nif­i­cant tax impli­ca­tions. These may arise in con­nec­tion with invest­ments, share­hold­ings, con­trac­tu­al arrange­ments, cor­po­rate reor­gan­i­sa­tions or deci­sions made in the ordi­nary course of business.

Legal advice in this area includes:

• Assess­ment of tax law issues aris­ing from busi­ness decisions
• Tax impli­ca­tions of invest­ments, share­hold­ings and cor­po­rate transactions
• Eval­u­a­tion and devel­op­ment of tax-effi­cient legal structures
• Assess­ment of tax-relat­ed legal risks and avail­able options
• Legal advice on changes to cor­po­rate and own­er­ship structures
• Advice where the tax treat­ment of a par­tic­u­lar trans­ac­tion or arrange­ment is disputed

The focus is not mere­ly on indi­vid­ual tax pro­vi­sions, but on their impli­ca­tions for the busi­ness and the peo­ple involved.

CoConnecting Business Assets, Personal Wealth and Family Interests

An entre­pre­neur’s tax con­sid­er­a­tions do not end at the bound­ary between busi­ness and per­son­al assets.

Com­pa­ny share­hold­ings, real estate, invest­ments and oth­er per­son­al assets may be close­ly con­nect­ed with busi­ness activ­i­ties. Deci­sions affect­ing a com­pa­ny can there­fore have sig­nif­i­cant impli­ca­tions for the entre­pre­neur’s per­son­al tax posi­tion and the finan­cial inter­ests of their family.

Legal advice takes these inter­de­pen­den­cies into account, par­tic­u­lar­ly in rela­tion to:

• Trans­fers of com­pa­ny shares and oth­er assets
• Gifts, inher­i­tances and estate-relat­ed tax planning
• Plan­ning and imple­ment­ing busi­ness succession
• Changes in own­er­ship struc­tures with­in a family
• Tax-relat­ed struc­tur­ing of busi­ness and per­son­al assets
• Coor­di­na­tion of cor­po­rate, tax and fam­i­ly interests

Where busi­ness own­er­ship, pri­vate wealth and fam­i­ly cir­cum­stances inter­sect, a coor­di­nat­ed legal and tax per­spec­tive is par­tic­u­lar­ly important.

Tax Law Advice for High-Net-Worth Individuals

Indi­vid­u­als with sub­stan­tial or com­plex assets may face tax law ques­tions with sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial consequences.

These may con­cern the own­er­ship and trans­fer of assets, real estate hold­ings, invest­ments in com­pa­nies or the tax impli­ca­tions of changes in fam­i­ly circumstances.

Legal advice focus­es on iden­ti­fy­ing avail­able options, assess­ing their tax con­se­quences and con­sid­er­ing the legal impli­ca­tions of dif­fer­ent approaches.

Inter­na­tion­al aspects may also be rel­e­vant, par­tic­u­lar­ly where assets, invest­ments or per­son­al cir­cum­stances involve more than one jurisdiction.

Developing Legally Sound Tax Structures

A tax-effi­cient arrange­ment must be com­mer­cial­ly appro­pri­ate and legal­ly sustainable.

Tax-relat­ed deci­sions can affect cor­po­rate agree­ments, con­trac­tu­al oblig­a­tions, exist­ing own­er­ship struc­tures and fam­i­ly wealth arrangements.

Legal advice there­fore con­sid­ers both the tax impli­ca­tions and the under­ly­ing legal relationships.

This approach is close­ly con­nect­ed with two fur­ther areas of the fir­m’s practice:

Cross-Bor­der Tax Matters

Where busi­ness activ­i­ties, invest­ments or per­son­al cir­cum­stances involve more than one coun­try, the inter­ac­tion between dif­fer­ent tax sys­tems and applic­a­ble inter­na­tion­al rules requires par­tic­u­lar attention.

Legal Advice on Tax-Dri­ven Cor­po­rate Structures

Cor­po­rate law and tax con­sid­er­a­tions are fre­quent­ly inter­con­nect­ed. Legal advice takes both per­spec­tives into account when assess­ing own­er­ship struc­tures, cor­po­rate trans­ac­tions and poten­tial restruc­tur­ing options.

Tax Matters and Disputes with the Tax Authorities

The tax author­i­ties and a tax­pay­er may reach dif­fer­ent legal con­clu­sions regard­ing the treat­ment of a par­tic­u­lar trans­ac­tion or arrangement.

In such cir­cum­stances, an inde­pen­dent legal assess­ment can help clar­i­fy the applic­a­ble tax law, eval­u­ate the author­i­ties’ posi­tion and iden­ti­fy poten­tial legal argu­ments and risks.

Advice may include review­ing the under­ly­ing facts, assess­ing the legal posi­tion tak­en by the tax author­i­ties and assist­ing in the res­o­lu­tion of dis­put­ed tax matters.

Where tax-relat­ed crim­i­nal law con­sid­er­a­tions arise, these may also need to be addressed as part of the over­all legal assessment.

Legal Tax Advice and Cooperation with Tax Advisers

Legal advice on tax mat­ters and ongo­ing tax com­pli­ance ser­vices serve dif­fer­ent but com­ple­men­tary purposes.

The fir­m’s prac­tice focus­es on legal advice, the assess­ment of tax law issues and the devel­op­ment of legal­ly sound tax-relat­ed structures.

Rou­tine finan­cial and pay­roll account­ing, recur­ring tax return prepa­ra­tion, annu­al finan­cial state­ments and sim­i­lar com­pli­ance ser­vices are not the fir­m’s pri­ma­ry focus.

Where such ser­vices are required, coop­er­a­tion with an appro­pri­ate­ly qual­i­fied tax advis­er can be coordinated.

Clients who already work with a tax advis­er may also ben­e­fit from addi­tion­al legal advice, par­tic­u­lar­ly in rela­tion to com­plex trans­ac­tions, cor­po­rate struc­tures or tax mat­ters involv­ing sig­nif­i­cant legal and finan­cial implications.

Discuss Your Tax Law Matter

Whether you are con­sid­er­ing a busi­ness deci­sion, plan­ning a trans­fer of wealth or seek­ing legal clar­i­fi­ca­tion of a spe­cif­ic tax issue, the start­ing point is a thor­ough under­stand­ing of the cir­cum­stances involved.

The scope of legal advice is deter­mined by the nature and require­ments of the indi­vid­ual matter.

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