Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance

The research of the Department of Business and Tax Law is concerned with the legal framework for nationally and internationally active companies provided by the different fields of private and tax law. This legal framework does not only shape these companies’ structure but also has an important influence on business decisions in general. Important elements of this research perspective are corporate law, providing for different legal forms, accounting, and capital market law, imposing various obligations on the companies in order to protect investors and the functioning of financial markets. These elements are complemented by tax law, which forces firms to contribute to the national budget. The basic parameters of a country’s tax system not only determine the scope of the state’s intervening powers but also the market situation of the participants in the economic system. Against the background of international regulatory competition in the sphere of taxation, the Institute is concerned with the design of national and cross-border taxation rules as important tasks of economic and political action – such as the rules concerning the assessment of profits or the taxation of companies. Manifold issues in accounting, corporate law and securities regulation are also legally and politically analyzed in the context of regulatory competition. Additionally, the Department deals with basic matters of the private legal order, notably the question of the character and the impact of private law in relation to public law (especially tax law) or to alternative incentive mechanisms of administrative law.

Research Areas

Director