Making Dispute Resolution Mechanisms More Effective – Consolidated Information on Mutual Agreement Procedures 2023

Germany

Recent developments relating to MAP in Germany prior to 15 August 2023

Developments relating to MAP in the tax treaty network

• No developments were reported

Other developments relating to MAP

• Update of MAP guidance as of 21 August 2021.

Latest Action 14 Peer Review report

9 April 2020 - https://doi.org/10.1787/9d6c280c-en

Tax treaty network of Germany

• 96 treaties, applicable to 96 jurisdictions (covering all treaties signed, although not necessarily in force)

• status of MLI: in force.

Table 1. State of play of Germany's tax treaty network

Treaties in line with the Action 14 Minimum Standard following MLI impact	Treaties where actions are ongoing to make them in line with the Action 14 Minimum Standard	Following impact/actions, remaining treaties that are not in line with Action 14 Minimum Standard
72	14	10

Source: OECD

Germany's MAP programme

Organisation of competent authority function

• 70 persons:

  • four heads of unit, eight deputies

  • 58 persons working on MAP cases (among which seven persons work on other tasks as well):

    • 47 persons work on attribution/allocation cases and 11 persons work on other cases.

• contact persons for MAP requests:

  • Bundeszentralamt für Steuern // Federal Central Tax Office Referate S III 10 / S III 11 / S III 12 / S III 13 // Divisions S III 10 / S III 11 / S III 12 / S III 13 An der Küppe 1 53225 Bonn Germany

  • Tel.: [phone] (central operator, please ask to be connected to Ms Meike Halfter (S III 10), Mr Arnim Hilse (S III 11), Dr Allit Lohbeck (S III 12), Mr Dominik Wichmann (S III 13), or one of their deputies) Fax.: [phone] EMail: [e-mail].

Figure 1. Competent Authority Organisational Structure

Source: OECD

Table 2. Guidance on the MAP process

MAP guidance	Federal Ministry of Finance circular on MAP (BStBl I 2021, 1495) (in German), 27 August 2021	https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/Downloads/BMF_Schreiben/Internationales_Steuerrecht/Allgemeine_Informationen/2021-08-27-merkblatt-zu-internationalen-verstaendigungs-und-schiedsverfahren-streitbeilegungsverfahren-auf-dem-gebiet-der-steuern-vom-einkommen-und-vom-vermoegen.html (Section 2.3 to be referred to for form and content of a MAP request, including information requirements)
	Overview of required information (in German)	https://www.bzst.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Merkblaetter/Merkblatt_Uebersicht_erforderliche_Angaben_Verstaendigungsverfahren.pdf
MAP profile	20 September 2022	https://www.oecd.org/tax/dispute/germany-dispute-resolution-profile.pdf

Overview of Germany's MAP Statistics for 2022

Please refer to https://www.oecd.org/tax/dispute/map-statistics-germany.pdf for details with respect to Germany's MAP Statistics.

Figure 2. Cases closed in 2022

Source: OECD

Figure 3. Evolution of Germany's MAP caseload (2016-22)

Source: OECD

Table 3. Overview of Germany’s MAP caseload for 2022

Inventory for year 2022	Opening Inventory 1/1/2022	Cases started	Cases Closed	End Inventory 31/12/2022
Attribution/allocation cases	624	325	272	677
Other cases	800	399	445	754
Total	1424	724	717	1431

Source: OECD

Table 4. Germany’s average time to resolve MAP cases in 2022

Cases resolved in year 2022	Pre-2016 cases		Post-2015 cases		All
	Number of cases	Average time	Number of cases	Average time	Number of cases	Average time
				Start to End
Attribution / Allocation cases	11	100.00	261	22.23	272	25.37
Other cases	41	112.00	404	18.15	445	26.79
All cases	52	109.46	665	19.75	717	26.26

Source: OECD