Teaching

External Accounting

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General
The course aims to provide students with basic knowledge of accounting technology and accounting in accordance with the German Commercial Code (HGB). They should familiarise themselves with the modelling of business management issues (business transactions) in the context of financial accounting and be able to classify the economic and legal framework conditions of external accounting in terms of their effects. They should acquire the ability to apply double-entry bookkeeping on the basis of concrete business transactions and be able to independently understand the statements of the basic accounting regulations according to the German Commercial Code (HGB) and implement them in the context of accounting for concrete practical cases. The contents of the module are:

• Sub-areas of accounting and their tasks
• Basic concepts of external accounting
• Legal foundations of external accounting
• Fundamentals of double-entry accounting
• Special issues of commercial and industrial companies
• The commercial balance sheet
• The profit and loss account

Current developments in international tax law

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All current information on the course will be published on the Moodle learning platform on an ongoing basis. For this reason, we kindly ask you to register in Moodle before the start of the semester and to follow the information and news published there during the course of the semester.

General
The current developments in foreign tax, treaty and European law will be discussed on the basis of source studies and presentations. The focus will be on legal changes, important judgements of the Federal Fiscal Court and the European Court of Justice as well as new opinions of the tax authorities.
The participants should gain knowledge of the latest developments in foreign tax law, treaty law and European law. They should gain an in-depth insight into the development and analysis of legal norms as well as fiscal, constitutional and European case law and be able to demonstrate their professional and methodological competence in academic discourse.

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German treaty policy

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All current information on the course will be published on the Moodle learning platform on an ongoing basis. For this reason, we kindly ask you to register in Moodle before the start of the semester and to follow the information and news published there during the course of the semester.

General
The law of double taxation treaties is of particular importance for cross-border taxation. This is because, while in cross-border situations the country of residence and the source country regularly have simultaneous access to an economic situation for tax purposes in accordance with the principle of universality and the principle of territoriality, the double taxation agreements regulate which intergovernmental measures distribute the taxation rights at a bilateral level in order to avoid double taxation in this way. While taxpayers are generally primarily interested in having their income taxed only once, the issue at state level is the power of taxation, i.e. the tax base to which the taxing authority is entitled. It is obvious that states – pursue different objectives within the double taxation agreements they have concluded, depending on their economic policy orientation –. The subject of the event is the German unilateral or multilateral strategy to achieve certain objectives. Both abstract questions of principle, such as the avoidance of double taxation on the basis of the imputation or exemption method, as well as specific individual questions, such as the distribution of the right of taxation in the case of cross-border co-entrepreneurships, will be analysed. The double taxation treaties of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German negotiation basis for double taxation treaties are always analysed.
The course provides students with an introduction to the law of double taxation treaties within the framework of a lecture. Basic knowledge regarding the applicability of double taxation treaties, the allocation of taxing rights and the avoidance of double taxation will be discussed.

 

Introduction to the German Foreign Tax Act

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General
The German Foreign Tax Act is of outstanding importance for tax advice on cross-border issues. Nevertheless, this subject area is given little consideration during university education, so that students are regularly only confronted with this subject matter during their work in tax consulting or auditing firms. The aim of the seminar is therefore to provide students with a broad overview of one of the most complex legal areas of German international tax law in order to prepare them in particular for a later activity in an internationally oriented tax consultancy or auditing company.
The course provides students with an introduction to the regulations of the German Foreign Tax Act. Basic knowledge of the regulatory system is acquired as part of the introductory lecture. In addition to the acquisition of a specialist foundation, the course also aims to deepen the skills of scientific work and the didactic transfer of the acquired knowledge.

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Introduction to tax procedural law (Fiscal Code and Fiscal Court Code)

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General
The aim of these courses is to provide students with substantive knowledge of tax procedural law, including the Fiscal Court Code and criminal tax law. The course is aimed in particular at economists with little previous legal knowledge. The event also includes a company workshop with a case study.

 

Case study seminar "Interactions and tensions between tax types"

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All current information on the course will be published on the Moodle learning platform on an ongoing basis. For this reason, we kindly ask you to register in Moodle before the start of the semester and to follow the information and news published there during the course of the semester.

Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of personal taxes (including international tax law), property taxes and transfer and excise taxes is recommended.

General
The case study seminar is intended to make it clear to students that the individual types of German taxes (personal taxes, property taxes and transaction and excise taxes) are not unrelated to each other, but must be considered from an interdisciplinary perspective. By means of source studies and presentations, the seminar participants should be able to recognise the effects across tax types. They should gain a deeper insight into the interactions between the legal norms of the various types of tax as well as fiscal court rulings and announcements by the tax authorities and be able to demonstrate their professional expertise in academic discourse. The course is intended as a supplement to the courses „Structuring in International Tax Law“, „Succession Planning and Taxes“ and „Value Added Tax in the Internal Market“.

 

International tax structuring

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General
Corporate taxes have become a significant cost factor that a company can hardly avoid. Consequently, the influence of taxes on business decisions must be taken into account. The course will show in which decisions the company's taxes are particularly relevant and which design options are available depending on the planning area in order to maximise profit after tax.
In addition to imparting factual knowledge, the course is intended to provide methodological training. Therefore, the modelling presented in the lecture part will be taken up again in the accompanying exercises and analysed using data variations and supplemented by sensitivity analyses.
Basic knowledge of national and international tax law is assumed. Students who have deficits in this area should definitely revise the content immediately with Kudert, Internationales Steuerrecht leicht gemacht, current edition, Duncker & Humblot Verlag.

 

International Tax Law

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All current information on the course will be published on the Moodle learning platform on an ongoing basis. For this reason, we kindly ask you to register in Moodle before the start of the semester and to follow the information and news published there during the course of the semester.

Prerequisites
Participants are required to have at least a basic knowledge of national and international tax law. If this is not the case, it is recommended that participants work through the latest editions of the textbooks "Tax Law Made Easy" and "International Tax Law Made Easy" beforehand. Participation without appropriate prior tax knowledge (at least from the textbook Kudert, Steuerrecht leicht gemacht, current edition, Duncker & Humblot Verlag,) is not advisable.

General
The module is aimed at students of law and economics.
The course aims to consolidate and deepen the basic understanding of the tax impact of cross-border investment decisions. Furthermore, participants should be able to recognise the tax implications of various alternative courses of action. To this end, they are also familiarised with the usual audit methodology. The aim is for students to later be able to solve unknown cases of international tax law methodically and convincingly.

 

Succession planning and taxes

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All current information on the course will be published on the Moodle learning platform on an ongoing basis. For this reason, we kindly ask you to register in Moodle before the start of the semester and to follow the information and news published there during the course of the semester.

General
The participants should receive an overview of the individual aspects of succession planning with a focus on taxes. Succession planning means optimising the generational transfer of private and business assets. The focus of the event is on the tax optimisation of asset succession. As a prerequisite for this, an overview of the following topics will first be provided:

• Introduction to inheritance law and inheritance and gift tax law;
• Income tax aspects of partial and gratuitous legal succession (anticipated succession - inheritance settlement with several heirs - the heir in income tax law);
• Succession planning from a business management perspective
.

Followed by a discussion of structuring approaches to optimise the transfer of assets for tax purposes in both the private and corporate sectors. In particular, the following aspects will be addressed:

• Succession planning for entrepreneurs at the interface between income and inheritance tax law;
Business succession at the interface between company, inheritance and tax law;
• Foundations and trusts as an instrument of succession for private and corporate estates;
• The international inheritance case
.

 

Tax accounts

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All current information on the course will be published on the Moodle learning platform on an ongoing basis. For this reason, we kindly ask you to register in Moodle before the start of the semester and to follow the information and news published there during the course of the semester.

Prerequisites
Solid knowledge of accounting is required. Therefore, the contents of Kudert/Sorg, Rechnungswesen leicht gemacht, current edition, Duncker & Humblot Verlag, and Kudert/Sorg, Steuerbilanzen leicht gemacht, current edition, Duncker & Humblot Verlag, should be worked through in advance in self-study.

General
Commercial and tax law are linked by the so-called principle of proportionality. However, special tax regulations lead to deviating capitalisation, liability and valuation approaches in the tax balance sheet, whereby the complexity of tax profit determination and accounting in reality is constantly increasing. Against this background, the seminar „Steuerbilanzen“ is dedicated on the one hand to the discussion of scientific problems in the context of tax accounting and on the other hand the seminar is intended to provide insights into the treatment of current, practical, tax accounting issues.
The module introduces students to German accounting tax law in the form of a lecture. Starting with a brief overview of the concept and the system of basic principles of proper accounting, the capitalisation, liability and valuation standards under commercial law are dealt with. Building on this, the tax valuation and accounting regulations are systematically and exemplarily analysed on the basis of current literature, case law and the opinion of the tax authorities.

 

Criminal Tax Law

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All current information on the course will be published on the Moodle learning platform on an ongoing basis. For this reason, we kindly ask you to register in Moodle before the start of the semester and to follow the information and news published there during the course of the semester.

General
The aim of these courses is to provide students with substantive knowledge of criminal tax law. The course is aimed in particular at economists with little previous legal knowledge. The course also includes a company workshop with a case study at FGS Berlin.

 

Sales Tax in the European Single Market

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All current information on the course will be published on the Moodle learning platform on an ongoing basis. For this reason, we kindly ask you to register in Moodle before the start of the semester and to follow the information and news published there during the course of the semester.

General
In particular, students should acquire knowledge of the systematics of VAT law at both national and European level. The systematic reading of laws as well as the application and interpretation techniques of these standards and the content of the law will be taught. The aim is for students to be able to independently apply the techniques taught to practical issues and changed legal bases, e.g. in tax consultancy. The contents of the module are:

• Taxability of deliveries and other services
• Intra-Community supplies / intra-Community acquisitions
• Treatment of import / export for VAT purposes
• Treatment of real estate transactions for VAT purposes
• Pre-tax deduction
• Adjustment of input tax
• Taxation procedure

 

Economic audit

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All current information about the course will be published on the Moodle learning platform on an ongoing basis. For this reason, we kindly ask you to register in Moodle before the start of the semester and to follow the information and news published there during the course of the semester.

Prerequisites
Solid knowledge of accounting is required. Recommended as a refresher: Kudert/Sorg, Rechnungswesen leicht gemacht, current edition, Duncker & Humblot Verlag and Kudert/Sorg/Höppner/Leitsch, IFRS leicht gemacht, current edition, Duncker & Humblot Verlag.

General
The aim of these courses is to familiarise students with the profession of tax consultant and accountant as well as the associated opportunities and challenges of the profession (institutional academic approach). In addition, accounting tax law is also addressed (functional academic approach).