Securing the preservation of the company, maintaining family peace and protecting the economic hedging of all family members – in order to achieve these goals, an entrepreneur should deal with succession plans at an early stage and should not rely on the statutory provisions on succession. When drafting the articles of association and then also when drafting the testamentary disposition, there are various structuring possibilities, some of which are explained below.

On 20 March 2019, the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection submitted a draft bill on ARUG II, the legislative act implementing the Second EU Shareholders’ Rights Directive. Compared to the initial draft bill published last autumn, some considerable changes have been incorporated.

In spring 2019, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decided that in certain constellations a deferral of payment of the tax payable in the event of a transfer of domicile (section 6 German Foreign Transaction Tax Act) must also be granted when relocating to Switzerland, i.e. also in relation to a third country. This results from the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons, which was concluded between the member states of the EU and Switzerland in 1999.