Business Taxation

1. Fundamentals of income and corporate taxation

• US tax law
• German tax law
• Taxation of partnerships and corporations

2. Taxation and business decisions

• Partnerships: The after-tax ‘Standard Model’
• Corporations: Corporate tax systems
• Investment and payout decisions of corporations
• Influence of loss offset rules

3. Neutral income tax systems

• Cash-flow tax
• Allowance for corporate equity tax
• Taxation of economic profits

4. International taxation

• Double tax relief mechanism
• Measuring corporate tax avoidance
• Cross-border profit shifting

Additional information for WHU students:

This course is part of the module "Business Taxation" that comprises two parts. First, the lecture "Business Taxation" by Assistant Professor Dr. Lisa Hillmann gives an introduction to tax planning. To deepen the understanding of these concepts, the second part of the module is based on case studies. The course "Cases in Business Taxation" is taught by Sven Westphälinger, Partner at KPMG.

The grading of the course is based on the final exam (90 min).

As this course is part of the module "Business Taxation", the overall grade for the module is based on the exam for the lecture "Business Taxation" (50%) and the course "Cases in Business Taxation" (50%).