Tax Law Support for Insolvency Administrators
As an insolvency administrator, you must decide whether to accept tax authority claims. However, these frequently raise complex tax law issues.
As an insolvency administrator, you must decide whether to accept tax authority claims. However, these frequently raise complex tax law issues.
Continuation of Interrupted Legal Remedies
If the insolvent company has already filed legal remedies against tax assessments, these are suspended when insolvency proceedings are opened (§ 155 sentence 1 FGO in conjunction with § 240 ZPO) and are generally only continued if you resume them (§§ 179 paragraph 2, 180 paragraph 2 InsO). Particularly in cases where amended assessments by the tax authority led to the opening of insolvency proceedings, an assessment of the remedy’s prospects of success is crucial.
Allegation of Participation in VAT Carousel Schemes
We increasingly act in cases where tax authorities, based on investigation measures by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, assume that the insolvent company either deliberately maintained business relationships with participants in a so-called VAT carousel or at least failed to fulfill special due diligence obligations when entering into the business relationship. In such cases, criminal investigation proceedings are frequently initiated against the former managing directors of the insolvent company. While the account of the former managing directors is helpful to you, due to the tension with the criminal proceedings it is not always entirely reliable. We therefore examine the investigation files to assess the prospects of success of the interrupted proceedings. Based on our experience in such cases, we assume further representation. Here, attorney and tax advisor Martin Riegel (former tax judge) and attorney Dr. Nikolaus Raub (former head of department at the Oberfinanzdirektion Karlsruhe) typically work closely together for you.
Avoidance, Set-off, and Input Tax Attribution
Tax authorities frequently reject insolvency law avoidance claims in connection with payments or set-offs, just as they reject claims of the invalidity of a set-off. Additionally, we regularly observe disagreements regarding the allocation of input tax refunds to the pre-insolvency period or the insolvency period. We regularly support insolvency administrators in preventing preferential treatment by the tax administration. To this end, we request the issuance of settlement assessments and represent you in the subsequent objection and court proceedings.
Other Questions of Insolvency Tax Law
We also assist you with other questions of insolvency tax law, for example in connection with restructuring gains. In doing so, you benefit from the perspective of the former tax judge (Martin Riegel) and the former head of department at the Oberfinanzdirektion Karlsruhe (Dr. Nikolaus Raub).