Facing Logjam, Germany Considers Striking Burdensome IP Tax

The German government is urging the country’s lawmakers to roll back a nearly century-year-old tax on intellectual property income that’s been creating major headaches.

Companies got some reprieve last month when the government granted a one-year deadline extension to June 30, 2023, for applications for exemptions from the tax. Without it, potentially thousands of companies would have had to pay—and then request a refund, the government said.

The extension now gives the government more time to process a major bottleneck of applications and for many companies who may still not have been aware of the measure to comply.

“It was ...