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WU Vienna Tax law

Faculty

Christoph Spengel

Christoph Spengel, born 1964, Diploma in Business Economics (1990), Dr. rer. pol. (1995), Dr. rer. pol. habil. (2002), Professor for International Business Taxation at the University of Mannheim. Director and Speaker of Leibniz ScientificCampus Mannheim Taxation, Research Associate at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), International Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation, Saïd Business School, Member of the Scientific Council of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the German Association of Criminal Investigation Officers. Academic Director of the Mannheim Master of Accounting and Taxation at Mannheim Business School. Appointed expert for taxation by the OECD, the European Commission and the IMF as well as by numerous German and foreign ministries. Expert for the German Federal Constitutional Court, the German Federal Parliament and the European Parliament. Member of the Editorial Boards of World Tax Journal (WTJ), Steuer und Wirtschaft (StuW) and Die Unternehmensbesteuerung (Ubg). Main research interests: international taxation (tax planning, comparison and evaluation of company tax burdens), company taxation in the European Union (tax harmonization, group taxation, profit allocation), taxation and innovation & digitalization.

Courses:
Companies operating within and across the borders in Europe are confronted with heterogeneous business taxation despite EU-wide tax harmonization efforts. Therefore, companies have to adapt their organization, finance and channels of distribution to the range of tax conditions in the Member States and aim to optimize their tax situation by considering all other company objectives. The emphasis of the course will be on the choice of location and way of financing of investments. The guidelines regarding the taxation of individuals and corporations in the European Union are presented. The topics vary from the basic principles of the dual system of taxation, the taxation of corporations and their shareholders and the taxation of partnerships to the impact of different corporation tax systems on financing decisions. Furthermore, the principles of international taxation regarding inbound and outbound investments are discussed. In addition, the course provides the conceptual foundations that allow companies to engage in tax planning and tax avoidance. Finally, the course presents countermeasures by the respective legislators (e.g. tax transparency initiatives, global minimum tax) that should limit undesired tax strategies and ensure a fair and sustainable taxation framework.



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