Financing for the Future Act passed by the Bundestag and Bundesrat​

The mea­su­res pas­sed by the Ger­man Bun­des­tag in­tend to mo­der­nize the ca­pi­tal mar­ket and fa­ci­li­tate ca­pi­tal mar­ket ac­cess for busi­nes­ses, par­ti­cu­larly start-ups, high-growth com­pa­nies and SMEs. In ad­di­tion to com­pre­hen­sive mea­su­res un­der busi­ness and fi­nan­cial mar­ket law, tax re­gu­la­ti­ons should also be amen­ded to this end.

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The draft con­ta­ins amend­ments to nu­me­rous laws and re­gu­la­ti­ons. Among other things,

• it is in­ten­ded to ex­tend the scope of the Elec­tro­nic Se­cu­ri­ties Act (Ge­setz über elek­tro­ni­sche Wert­pa­piere, eWpG) to in­clude sha­res to make ca­pi­tal mar­kets more at­trac­tive.
• At the same time, it is in­ten­ded to re­move obst­acles to di­gi­ta­liza­tion in su­per­vi­sory law and to im­prove the frame­work con­di­ti­ons for com­mu­ni­ca­ting with the Ger­man Fe­deral Fi­nan­cial Su­per­vi­sory Aut­ho­rity (Ba­Fin) in Eng­lish.
• In or­der to im­prove the pos­si­bi­li­ties for in­itial pu­blic of­fe­rings (IPO), the re­gu­latory re­qui­re­ments for IPOs and the re­qui­re­ments for ca­pi­tal in­crea­ses un­der Ger­man cor­po­rate law should be ea­sed-up. In ad­di­tion, it is in­ten­ded to al­low dual-class sha­res with mul­ti­ple vo­ting rights.

The tax amend­ments pro­vide in par­ti­cu­lar for an im­pro­ve­ment of the tax con­di­ti­ons for em­ployee share ow­nership ef­fec­tive from 2024. Among other things, this is in­ten­ded to help com­pa­nies to at­tract and re­tain the em­ployees they want.

• To this end, the tax al­lo­wance for em­ployee share ow­nership un­der sec­tion 3 no. 39 of the Ger­man In­come Tax Act (Ein­kom­men­steu­er­ge­setz, EStG) is to be in­crea­sed from 1,440 Euro to 2,000 Euro.
• In ad­di­tion, the per­so­nal and tem­po­ral scope of ap­pli­ca­tion of the pro­vi­si­ons in sec­tion 19a of the Ger­man In­come Tax Act (Ein­kom­men­steu­er­ge­setz, EStG) on non-cash be­ne­fits from em­ployee share­hol­dings is to be ex­ten­ded. Among other things, it is cla­ri­fied that de­fer­red ta­xa­tion is also ap­plica­ble to sha­res with re­stric­tions on dis­po­sal (so-cal­led re­stric­ted sha­res).