'Transactions' podcast series

Tax matters: What are the key business tax measures in the German ‘traffic light’ coalition agreement?

The results of the German federal election in September this year provided the Social Democrat Party with a narrow victory and both the Green party and the Free Democratic Party also made gains compared to the previous federal election. This resulted in the possibility of a so-called “traffic light” coalition in reference to their customary political party colours.

In our previous podcast, recorded shortly after the election result, we discussed what this composition of German coalition government could mean for both global tax policy and the domestic German tax landscape.

Since that time, the formal coalition negotiations between these three parties have successfully concluded with the signing of a coalition agreement. This means that the traffic light coalition has become a reality and Olaf Scholz has been sworn in as the new German Chancellor.

In our latest podcast on this topic, senior knowledge lawyer Alison Dickie speaks to David Issmer, Freshfields’ Head of Public Affairs in Germany, and German tax partners David Beutel, Philipp Redeker and Georg Roderburg to discuss the detail of the key business tax policy measures included in the now finalised traffic light coalition agreement.