Taxation of Trusts - Old and New Issues (Part I)

The taxation of trusts has always raised many questions. The classification is complicated not only by the fact that German civil law does not recognize this legal institution, but also by the unmanageable number of different functional types of trusts. In a number of recently published decisions, the Second Senate of the Federal Fiscal Court has now had the opportunity to provide a little more legal certainty. In his two-part article in IStR, Michael Tischendorf classifies the trust decisions of the BFH and focuses on questions that remain unresolved.