As attractive as management participation programs may be as a financial incentive to increase the willingness of executives to provide high performance, a certain dissatisfaction quickly arises due to the uncertain tax consequences. This is because it is often difficult to give a legally sound answer due to difficulties in the qualification of income. The question is whether subsequent income from the sale of the shares constitutes fully taxable income from employment or income from capital investment. In two further decisions, the Federal Fiscal Court (Bundesfinanzhof – BFH) confirms its legal opinion and for the first time also comments on so-called sweet equity structures.

For income tax purposes, supervisory board members generate income from self-employment with their activities. Previously, the tax authorities followed this assessment and classified supervisory board members as entrepreneurs, with the result that the remuneration was generally subject to VAT. However, due to recent case law, this view is partly outdated. In the future, it will have to be examined on a case-by-case basis whether supervisory board remuneration is subject to VAT or not.

On 27 April 2021, the Bundestag approved the draft law on the establishment and operation of a register of basic company data and the introduction of a standardized national business number for companies (Basic Company Data Register Act (Unternehmensbasisdatenregistergesetz – UBRegG)). The UBRegG essentially already came into force on 15 July 2021 and is intended to create the basis for a modern, digital and networked register landscape in Germany. The following article presents the main features of the UBRegG and provides an overview of future obligations of affected companies resulting from the creation of a central business data register (hereinafter the “Company Register”).