In a let­ter dated 6 Novem­ber 2020, the Federal Mini­s­try of Finance (BMF) com­men­ted on an inter­pre­ta­tion of Ger­man limi­ted tax lia­bi­lity on roy­alty pay­ments, an issue that has emer­ged as con­tro­ver­sial in the recent past. The BMF’s legal posi­tion may have sig­ni­fi­cant con­se­qu­en­ces for inter­na­tio­nally ope­ra­ting groups of com­pa­nies. The easing of the legal requi­re­ment that had been ori­gi­nally plan­ned no lon­ger appears to be on the cards.

The corona pan­de­mic con­ti­nues to have a full grip on social life and also the eco­nomy - and the eco­no­mic chal­len­ges are ref­lec­ted in new acco­un­ting requi­re­ments. That is why we have com­pi­led an over­view of important pub­li­ca­ti­ons on IFRS acco­un­ting in this edi­tion of novus IFRS.

This guide to Doing Busi­ness in Ger­many is inten­ded to pro­vide an ini­tial over­view of the politi­cal, eco­no­mic, legal and tax environ­ment for inves­ting in this coun­try, so as to faci­li­tate poten­tial inve­s­tors’ deci­sion-making about a Ger­man busi­ness com­mit­ment.