Berlin tax boffins set the agenda

The proposed lifting of capital gains tax on corporate mergers and restructuring came as a big surprise to almost everyone. It could transform the face of corporate Germany. But do the tax experts know what they’re doing? And will they take away with one hand what they’re giving with the other?

       
Hans Eichel (left) and Gerhard Schröder

Germany’s corporate bosses expect the government to listen to them. They have wanted a tax change for years, and in December they were finally promised one. But it wasn’t what they had asked for: it was more.

How could a Social Democrat/Green coalition give the captains of industry and finance more than the Christian Democrats had ever dared to do while in office? The tax change was logical; it was long overdue.

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