Germany: 2022 Annual Tax Act
The 2022 Annual Tax Act became effective on 21 December 2022.
The 2022 Annual Tax Act became effective on 21 December 2022.
The 2022 Annual Tax Act (Jahressteuergesetz 2022 – JStG 2022) was promulgated in the federal law gazette on 20 December 2022, and became effective on 21 December 2022.
The legislation includes measures relating to digitalization, procedural simplification, legal certainty and tax equality, as well as implementation of the coalition agreement and adaption to EU law, Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) case law, and judgements of the German Federal Fiscal Court.
In addition, and in particular, the legislation includes the following tax-related measures:
- Amended treatment of so-called “register cases” (i.e., limited tax liability/non-resident tax status pursuant to Section 49 EStG for licence payments and sales transactions from rights between non-resident taxpayers due to domestic registration in Germany)
- Increase in straight-line depreciation rate for new residential buildings to 3% (from 2%, or 2.5% for buildings completed before 1 January 1925)—effective for residential buildings held as private and business assets completed after 31 December 2022
- Option to waive the recognition of deferred income and prepaid expenses in the tax balance sheet (up to an amount of €800 each) that must be exercised uniformly—effective 1 January 2022
- Income tax exemption for income from the operation of certain photovoltaic systems—effective 1 January 2022
- Extension of contribution refund in cross-border cases to other European Economic Area (EEA) and third-country corporations (previously only EU)—effective 1 January 2023
- Temporary windfall profits tax on fossil sector for 2022 and 2023 financial years (implementing Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854 of 6 October 2022)
- Obligations for payment service providers for cross-border payments to implement EU Council Directive 2020/284 and intended to combat value added tax (VAT) fraud, particularly in the area of cross-border electronic commerce—effective 1 January 2024
- Zero VAT rate for the supply, import, intra-community purchase and installation of photovoltaic systems, including energy storage units—effective 1 January 2023
Read a January 2023 report [PDF 385 KB] prepared by the KPMG member firm in Germany
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