structuring

Our Passion? Complex Structures

“Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge.”

Winston Churchill

There is often potential for improving a corporate structure. As two-in-one attorneys-at-law and tax advisors, we specialise in the fiscal and corporate structuring of companies. We are experts in the procedures and have the economic understanding to find the right entrepreneurial solutions for you.

Our many years of experience in these areas help us master even the most complex corporate restructuring. We are the perfect partners for:

Preparation and realisation of reorganisations (including mergers, splits, investments, changes of legal form, accruals and de facto splitting of companies) and restructuring necessitated by a rescue operation
Advising on structural matters in corporate tax law
Cross-border structuring for your investments outside Germany, or foreign entities investing in Germany

Developing a corporate structure

The motivation for developing or changing a corporate structure often has nothing to do with tax law at all. Or you may want to optimise your company structure for tax reasons because you are, for example, preparing for a generational change or a sale.

We support you from start to finish – regardless of whether it is initial what-if scenarios or concrete ideas about the future structure of a company. Even if you only have questions about tax law, we never lose sight of corporate law. If you already have a qualified advisor for corporate law, we will be happy to work out the tax side with them.

The development of a corporate structure typically consists of three steps:

Determining the current situation
Defining the target structure
Developing a path to the target structure

Ideally, the path to the target structure will not involve any fiscal “friction losses”, i.e. the path should not trigger any taxes. As tax advisors, we consider potential problems – such as blocking periods from previous restructurings or sales – while developing the path to the target structure.

It sometimes becomes apparent that the originally proposed target structure can be achieved only at comparatively high costs. We can analyse alternatives for you and assist you in deciding which option is the most economically sound.

Implementation of a corporate structure

We are particularly passionate about both developing corporate structures and implementing them ourselves. As lawyers and tax consultants, we specialise in both.

We draft the relevant documents and, if necessary, organise the proceedings; we obtain the relevant powers of attorney; we organise a notarial appointment and the necessary documents; if necessary, we will also explain the procedure to the respective registration courts. In addition, we involve other consultants, such as auditors, and are happy to explain the process to your employees or managers. Even after restructuring itself has been completed, we will be happy to support you with follow-up tasks like bookkeeping, preparing entries in tax returns and the annual accounts.

Implementing a structure can mean reorganising a company, establishing contractual relationships or redistributing tasks within your company.

You will benefit in three ways from our comprehensive consulting services in the development and implementation stages

Feasibility is a top priority every time we organise structures. We don’t believe in dry runs
We always focus on the true goal during implementation. We know why you chose a certain structure and not any other; we also make sure that all the little details add up to the big picture.
While implementing a concept, it is not uncommon to come across details that were previously unknown. Since we understand the corporate structure and its tax characteristics, we recognise problems and can promptly make the necessary adjustments.

Occasionally, we are entrusted with implementing a structure that has been developed by colleagues who practice only tax law. In these cases, in addition to our know-how in corporate and transformation law, we apply the necessary grasp of tax law complexities to the implementation process, without setting ourselves apart as “superior consultants”.