Germany has not decided on “patent box” yet – official
Oct 1 Germany is not ruling out the introduction of tax breaks for companies on revenue generated from patented or licensed research, a senior official said on Thursday.
The government has repeatedly said it would consider introducing so-called patent boxes if there were no progress towards fair tax competition at a global level.
“A decision on the introduction of a ‘patent box’ in Germany has not yet been made,” a government official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Finance ministers from the Group of 20 economies (G20) are due to agree on an action plan from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to combat legal tax avoidance by big companies when they meet in Peru next week.
The OECD plan says that in future tax breaks based on patented research can apply only in the country where the research and development takes place. But the plan will not be legally binding.
The German official said Berlin wanted to wait and see how other countries would act before deciding on what it would do. (Reporting by Matthias Sobolewski and Michelle Martin)