From tax competition to coordinated global corporate taxation

Foreign tax havens still at an advantage

Tax competition has weakened – this is good news, one would think. However, this is no reason for German family businesses to sound the all-clear.

The fact that certain instruments are effective against profit shifting has not – at least so far – led to a harmonisation of tax rates at a lower level. This is the conclusion of the researchers at the ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, who analysed the topic for the second time since 2018 on behalf of the Foundation for Family Businesses.

In their study, they provide a detailed overview of the individual measures taken by the EU and OECD and address the question of how effective these are for family businesses in particular.

Here too, their criticism is directed in particular against a significant increase in bureaucracy. As family businesses are typically strongly rooted in their location, they cannot take advantage of many optimisation opportunities, but are still subject to complex regulations.