Online marketplaces – VAT registration for foreign sellers in Germany

Operators of Internet marketplaces should be liable for VAT of their dealers! The German Government wants to prevent VAT losses in trade with goods on electronic marketplaces on the Internet (e.g. eBay). For this reason, section 22f of the Value Added tax Act was introduced that is intended to make operators of Internet marketplaces more […]

Bank meeting

How to prepare a meeting with the bank? If you require funds, you can go to your bank and apply for a loan or open an overdraft on your current account. However, banks hesitate to approve credit to new customers and recently established companies. The same holds true if the company is not making a […]

Financing – basic funding considerations

Funding of business operations should correspond to the transactions to be financed with respect to their periods. Take a look at a couple of examples below: Customer payment term 30 days – funding by current account Building project or assembly order, which requires several years – funding corresponding to the construction period Vehicle corresponding to the […]

Voluntary audits of annual financial statements

The audit of annual financial statements is mandatory for corporations with specific balance sheet totals or number of employees. As per Sections 267 (1) in conjunction with 316 (1) of the German Commercial Code (HGB), if any two of the three below mentioned criteria are exceeded on two consecutive balance sheet dates, it is mandatory […]

Due Dilligence

Financial and tax due diligence answers the question: “Can or should we acquire this company?” Figuratively, “due diligence” could be described as an umbrella term for the comprehensive analysis of a company before its acquisition. In particular, it concerns checking and evaluating companies to see whether the information provided at the time of the offer […]

Company valuation: Methods

In the simplified German capitalized earnings method as per Sections 199 ff. BewG (Tax Valuation Act), the determination of the tax basis for inheritance and gift tax purposes have priority. It is based on a past oriented valuation method, which is mandatory for unlisted corporations as well as for sole proprietorships, partnerships and independent professionals. […]

Company valuation: Purposes

There are many occasions for getting company valuations done. These can be differentiated based on whether they are transaction specific or non-transaction specific. The most common cases we handle company valuations at Benefitax are for the acquisition of a company or for a tax return (e.g. in case of a gift or inheritance). Transaction specific […]