Actively structure and optimise taxes

The necessity of holding structures arises for many larger groups and family businesses for business management reasons. From a tax perspective, almost all companies can benefit from this. The possibility of carrying out tax-optimised profit distributions from the operational business unit through holding companies is elementary when it comes to minimising the risk of asset accumulation and preservation (asset protection). A holding structure also offers advantages for a later sale of the company or shares, however.

In the context of business succession, particular attention must be paid to optimising the gift and inheritance tax that accrues. There are extensive, albeit complex, exemption arrangements, especially for the transfer of business assets. It is also worth considering tax structuring for private assets. In addition to gift and inheritance tax consequences, income tax consequences also play a role in the context of business succession. This begins with securing a transfer while minimising the income tax incurred and ends, for example, with the structuring of tax-deductible pension payments to the transferring generation. If private or business real estate is involved, the consequences for real estate transfer tax must always be taken into account.

With regard to real estate, there are a multitude of structuring options. By the same token, the personal objective is always at the forefront because tax-optimised structuring options for commercial property traders differ substantially from those for long-term portfolio holders and lessors. Warranting special mention in the area of long-term leasing is the possibility of claiming ongoing taxation at around 15 %. This offers attractive reinvestment opportunities compared to leasing at the regular income tax rate. If you opt for the right design, these advantages can also be claimed for existing and portfolio properties.

The long-term participation of employees in the success of the company is a popular and widespread means of ensuring that the objectives and interests of employers and employees are as aligned as possible. Particularly important in this context is the granting of shareholdings, especially in relatively new companies and start-ups. From the point of view of these companies, shareholding programmes offer a liquidity-preserving remuneration option which, due to often steep growth prospects, have a high incentive effect from the employee's point of view. In the context of the concrete design of employee participation programmes, the tax effects are usually of overriding importance. This is understandable, as the attractiveness of the programme from the employee's point of view stands and falls to a large extent with the resulting (wage) tax consequences. In this respect, tax legislators have recently made improvements to make employee share-ownership schemes more attractive from a wage tax perspective. But the tax effects from a company's point of view also depend to a large degree on the choice and design of the participation programme. Feel free to contact us if you are thinking about an employee participation programme.

Possible uses of foundations and associated tax issues are manifold. For example, the family foundation, which is intended to ensure the protection and cohesion of the founder's assets (asset protection) on the one hand and their provision and that of their family members on the other, is an increasingly used component of succession planning. It is also attractive from an inheritance and gift tax perspective in order to avoid burdens on family assets. In addition, the charitable foundation warrants mention; this provides a tax exemption on the greatest possible scale. However, many tax requirements must be created and complied with, which is why we rely on a team of experienced experts for non-profit organisations (NPO) within dhpg.