Foreign foundations and trusts in the light of current fiscal court rulings

On 1 April 2025, the law firms YPOG, Flick Gocke Schaumburg and POELLATH jointly organized a symposium in honour of Dr. Thomas Töben. At this event, Dr. Thomas Töben was presented with a special edition of the FinanzRundschau magazine published by Dr. Otto Schmidt. POELLATH professionals Dr. Andreas Richter and Dr. Michael Feldner also contributed to this issue.

In their article entitled “Foreign foundations and trusts in the light of current fiscal court rulings”, Dr. Richter and Dr. Feldner outline the tax qualification of foreign foundations and trusts. The qualification takes place in a two-stage procedure, whereby the first stage examines whether there is a comparable German legal structure for the foreign foundation or trust, and the second stage is the tax classification. A wealth of case law has developed in recent years, particularly with regard to the second stage.