Residence here, income there, assets spread across several countries: these are the situations where international tax law applies. Most firms avoid the field. We have specialised in it and advise in four languages.
What matters is not your passport but residence (§ 8 AO) and habitual abode (§ 9 AO). Meet either and you are subject to unlimited tax liability (§ 1 (1) EStG) — on your worldwide income. Earn only German income without living here and you are subject to limited liability (§ 1 (4) EStG). The distinction is delicate and, depending on your pattern of stay, can decide six-figure amounts per year.
Germany has treaties with over ninety countries. Each governs separately — for employment income, dividends, capital gains or real estate — which state may tax; double taxation is avoided through exemption with progression or credit. In practice it’s the special cases that shape daily work — the saving clause on US income, the cross-border rule with Switzerland, Italy’s flat-tax regime.
Anyone with a holding of at least one percent who leaves Germany is treated as if they had sold their shares — without an actual sale, without liquidity. Since the 2022 reform the tax can, on application, be paid in seven interest-free annual instalments (usually against security, uniformly for the EU/EEA and third countries); it lapses retroactively if you return within seven, on application up to twelve, years. Plan five years ahead and you have room to act. Call three months before and you don’t.
Foreign legal forms such as the US LLC raise demanding questions on the German side: classification by type comparison, the risk of double taxation, controlled-foreign-company taxation under the AStG. We handle this German perspective in full and coordinate closely with the adviser in the country concerned — for US, British, Italian and Swiss situations alike.
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