ASCG Comment Letter on the Draft Bill for the Minimum Taxation Directive Implementation Act

Today, the ASCG submitted its comment letter on the Government draft bill (government draft) for the implementation of the Directive to ensure a global minimum taxation for multinational groups of companies and large domestic groups in the Union and the implementation of further accompanying measures (Minimum Taxation Directive Implementation Act – MinBestRL-UmsG) to the Finance Committee of the German Bundestag and to the Federal Ministry of Finance. The comment letter was prepared by the ASCG’s Tax Working Group and – due to the urgency of the matter – adopted by the Joint Technical Committee by written procedure.

In the comment letter, we expressly welcome the proposal in the government draft to introduce a mandatory exception from accounting for deferred taxes in the annual and consolidated financial statements resulting from the application of the MinBestRL-UmsG or corresponding foreign minimum tax laws (Secs. 274 (1) Sentence 5 and 306 Sentence 5 of the Draft HGB). This exception would reduce the complexity of implementing the new minimum tax law requirements and counteract the development of different accounting practices and the resulting inconsistent approaches.

Notwithstanding the fundamental support for the proposed amendments to the HGB, we would like to point out some points regarding Articles 7 and 8 of the Draft MinBestRL-UmsGMinStG that should be considered in the further legislative process. In addition, the comment letter contains some comments on Article 1 of the Draft MinBestRL-UmsGMinStG.

Background:

The draft bill serves to implement Directive (EU) 2022/2523 to ensure a global minimum level of taxation for multinational groups of companies and large domestic groups in the European Union (Minimum Taxation Directive – MinBestRL). This was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 22 December 2022 and is to be implemented by EU Member States by 31 December 2023. It is to be applied for fiscal years beginning on or after 31 December 2023. The aim of the draft bill is to implement central elements of the international agreements on Pillar 2 of the so-called OECD BEPS two-pillar solution and to implement further accompanying measures related to this.

German legislation is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.