Busi­ness ac­tivi­ties have an im­pact on the en­viron­ment for sure. The in­cre­asing ex­plo­siv­en­ess of the is­sues of cli­mate change and en­viron­men­tal pro­tec­tion is the­re­fore prompting both the EU and na­tio­nal le­gis­la­tors to con­ti­nuously in­crease the den­sity of re­gu­la­ti­ons in en­viron­men­tal law. Com­pa­nies have no choice but to fo­cus more clo­sely on their en­viron­men­tal com­pli­ance. This bro­chure pro­vi­des an over­view of the cur­rent en­viron­men­tal re­gu­la­ti­ons.

On 16 Au­gust 2023, the Ger­man Fe­deral Ca­bi­net ap­pro­ved the go­vern­ment‘s draft for the Mi­ni­mum Tax Di­rec­tive Im­ple­men­ta­tion Act. This ma­kes it con­crete what re­qui­re­ments large cor­po­rate groups in Ger­many will have to con­sider.

As of 2024, large cor­po­rate groups have to as­sess for the first time the ex­tent to which a top-up tax is payable due to the re­qui­re­ments of the glo­bal mi­ni­mum tax (Pil­lar II). In this con­text, even if all group en­ti­ties are re­si­dent in ju­ris­dic­tions with a no­mi­nal cor­po­rate tax rate far above the mi­ni­mum tax rate of 15 %, the is­sue of the glo­bal mi­ni­mum tax is not sett­led. Howe­ver, tem­porary sim­pli­fi­ca­ti­ons might be ap­plica­ble. Our tool-ba­sed ap­proach with the Eb­ner Stolz Tran­si­tio­nal CbCR Safe Har­bour Quick Check pro­vi­des an in­itial as­sess­ment.