Cross-border tax-related matters

When tax considerations extend beyond national borders

Cross-bor­der per­son­al and busi­ness sit­u­a­tions reg­u­lar­ly give rise to com­plex tax and legal ques­tions. Nation­al tax rules, dou­ble tax­a­tion treaties and cor­po­rate law frame­works inter­act and can rarely be assessed in isolation.

I advise clients on cross-bor­der tax-relat­ed mat­ters, par­tic­u­lar­ly where legal, tax and eco­nom­ic aspects must be con­sid­ered together.

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

Legal sup­port is par­tic­u­lar­ly appro­pri­ate where:

• tax mat­ters involve inter­na­tion­al elements,
• clients are already tax-advised and require legal input,
• or sev­er­al legal sys­tems are affected.

Cas­es involv­ing only a brief, iso­lat­ed ques­tion with­out deep­er analy­sis are gen­er­al­ly not suitable.