In the light of current cases, I would like to explain some basic principles regarding a managing director’s personal liability for unfulfilled tax obligations. Early in 2017, the Munster Financial Court had succinctly summarized the current state of the jurisprudence and put a particular emphasis on the fact that even the observation of the German insolvency filing requirements might not prevent the managing director’s personal liability.
New provisions on asset recovery in Germany
Recently, the case of Infinus AG, as before the cases “Comroad” or “Enron“, again proved that criminal employees or managing directors can get companies into a life-threatening crisis. To date, however, especially medium-sized enterprises are often not aware of the fact that the German Criminal Procedure Code provides tools to help victims of criminal offenses to enforce their civil-law claims against the offender(s). The Legislator is now seeking a simplified enforcement of these rights by means of a fundamental reform of the corresponding regulations, which entered into force on 1 July 2017.
The German Economy in August 2017 – mixed signals
Like the weather, which at least in Germany sent some mixed messages about “summer”, the German economy currently sends mixed signals as to its status:
OLG Frankfurt on the avoidance of advisor’s fees
With its judgment of 19 October 2016, the OLG Frankfurt (Frankfurt Higher Regional Court) upheld a ruling by the LG Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt Lower Regional Court) from 2015 on the avoidance of advisors’ fees in the insolvency of the photovoltaic company Q-Cells.
BGH: Tax advisors liability tightened
In a ruling issued at the end of January 2017, the German Federal Supreme Court (“Bundesgerichshof“, “BGH“) has tightened the requirements for the liability of tax advisors in a corporate crisis.
Taxes in turnaround – swift legislative action
Only one month after the surprising decision of the German Federal Tax Court (“Bundesfinanzhof” (BFH)) on the so-called “Decree on Turnaround” (“Sanierungserlass”), the German Bundesrat had already proposed a new statutory regulation and also the German higher fiscal authorities (OFD Frankfurt) has issued a directive on how to deal with applications for the waiver on the taxation of “turnaround profits”. And now the German Federal Government (represented by the Federal Ministry of Finance, BMF) and the German Parliament seemingly want to set the pace: