Germany's tax treatment of cross border royalty payments to non-residents

Document from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Accounting and Taxes, grade: keine, , 11 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This booklet is specifically addressed to foreign licensors and its tax advisors receiving licence income from German sources and which are faced or threatened with tax deduction in Germany. The intention of this book is to provide you with an adequate but hardly exhaustive understanding of the German tax consequences and also opportunities as a foreign licensor. After reading this book you should have a good understanding of you rights as taxpayer and should be able deal with the main tax issues as foreign licensor in Germany. Important Notice: The Tax Act of 2009 has changed large parts of the section 50a German Income Tax Act and thus the tax withholding procedure. In many cases a deduction of related expenses is now possible at least to a certain extent. Still not so, however, for royalty payments for which reason the domestic withholding tax rate has been reduced to 15% (plus solidarity surcharge), regardless if the foreign licensor is a corporation or other person.

Rüdiger Urbahns lebt und arbeitet in Hamburg und hat über 20 Jahre praktische Erfahrung als Steuer- und Finanzexperte in unterschiedlichen Positionen bei der Finanzverwaltung und in der Steuerberatung. Aktuell ist Rüdiger Urbahns als Syndikus-Steuerberater für einen internationalen Konzern in Hamburg und in einer Einzelpraxis in Hamburg tätig (www.stburbahns.de).