Planned legislative changes

For companies as well as private individuals, it is advisable to take an early look at the key planned changes and consider possible courses of action. The legislation is still pending.

• The tax-exempt volunteer allowance for voluntary activities cannot currently be paid simultaneously with flat-rate travel expense allowances to athletes, referees and sports coaches. From 1 January 2026, an improvement is planned in that a monthly assessment will apply to this exclusion of the tax-exempt volunteer allowance in the case of simultaneous receipt of flat-rate travel expense allowances. It will then be possible to switch between the two options on a monthly basis. The annual maximum amounts of €1,000 (small volunteer allowance) and €3,000 (large volunteer allowance) are to be reduced on a pro rata basis accordingly.
• In order to avoid over-subsidisation through flat-rate consideration of travel costs in connection with public transport, from 1 January 2026 only the actual costs or the imputed costs for the cheapest public transport option, capped at the costs actually incurred by the employee in the calendar year, may be reimbursed tax-free by the employer or claimed by the employee as income-related expenses.
• As a rule, in the case of the gratuitous transfer of a rented asset (in particular a building), the depreciation (AfA) of the legal predecessor must be continued. However, if a gratuitously transferred building was last used by the transferor to generate income before 1 April 2012, the Tax Amendment Act 2025 provides that, in the event of renewed letting of this building by the legal successor, the (generally higher) notional acquisition costs may be used as the depreciation base.
• The Large Enterprises Tax Office is responsible, inter alia, for businesses whose sales revenues exceed a certain threshold. As the thresholds for balance sheet total and sales revenues in the Commercial Code have been increased by 25% due to the heightened inflation of recent years, the turnover threshold for the jurisdiction of the Large Enterprises Tax Office is likewise to be raised from €10 million to €12.5 million with effect from 1 January 2026. This will, however, have no effect on proceedings and external audits already pending with the Large Enterprises Tax Office as at 31 December 2025.
• The following amendment is planned in the Real Estate Transfer Tax Act regarding tax liability: In the event of simultaneous realisation of a unification of shares and a change of shareholders, the person in whose hands the unification of shares occurs is to be the debtor of real estate transfer tax in future. If there is only a unification of shares, the company is to remain the tax debtor.
• In the VAT Act, the current case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on invoice correction is taken into account: If VAT is incorrectly (in particular excessively) stated on an invoice to a final consumer (private individual), this VAT is not owed by the entrepreneur by virtue of the invoice. By contrast, in the case of invoices to an entrepreneur, erroneously stated VAT is to continue to be owed by virtue of the invoice, irrespective of whether the recipient entrepreneur is entitled to deduct input VAT or not.
• An extension of the tobacco tax and the tobacco monopoly to novel alternative products is planned, as well as a general adjustment of the tax rates.