Accor­ding to the expl­ana­tory memo­ran­dum to the Act, the primary objec­tive of the Fonds­stand­ort­ge­setz was to improve Germany’s inter­na­tio­nal compe­ti­ti­ve­ness as a loca­tion for employee share owner­ship, parti­cu­larly with regard to start-ups. In addi­tion, the disad­van­tage for Germany as a fund loca­tion caused by the levy­ing of VAT on the admi­nis­tra­tive services of venture capi­tal funds should also be elimi­na­ted. Almost unno­ti­ced and shortly before its adop­tion by the Bundes­rat, a signi­fi­cant impro­ve­ment in the so-called exten­ded reduc­tion for real estate compa­nies then also found its way into the law. This article will briefly intro­duce the latter two topics with a view to prac­ti­cal applications.

I. Co-leasing of opera­ting equip­ment — all’s well that ends well?

If leased real estate loca­ted in Germany is held in a property company, usually a limi­ted liabi­lity company (GmbH), or a commer­cial part­ner­ship with manage­ment in Germany, the rental profits of these compa­nies are gene­rally subject to trade tax in full.