On 14 January 2009, the Federal Tax Court (BFH) published a decision that allowed tax-effective write-downs of shareholder loansunder the rules that had been in effect until the end of 2007 (see GTLN 3/2009 for more details). This decision has now been published in the Federal Gazette and will therefore generally be accepted and applied by the tax authorities in all open cases. However, when publishing the decision, the BMF added that it would comment on the treatment of write-downs on loans to related foreign companies and loans from individual shareholders in a separate decree (which has not yet been published).
On 20 November 2009, the regional tax authorities in Münster published additional guidance on the issue. This guidance instructs the tax authorities to keep open all cases of write-downs on loans granted by individuals to corporations and loans granted to foreign subsidiaries where the shareholder directly or indirectly holds a shareholding of more than 25% until the BMF has published the decree. A final assessment may be issued only in cases of tax-effective write-downs on loans from corporate shareholders to German subsidiaries and on loans to foreign subsidiaries where the shareholder has a shareholding of less than 25%.
