22nd LMU Munich Tax Awards ceremony

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In May, special scientific achievements in the field of business taxation were honored at the annual LMU Munich Tax Awards Ceremony.

This time, the prize, donated by the law firm Linklaters, was awarded for one bachelor's thesis, one master's thesis, and one dissertation from Ludwig Maximilian University.

A special pleasure at the beginning of the event was the keynote speech by Ms. Katja Hessel, MdB, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Finance, which highlighted exciting aspects with regard to current legislative projects, legislative challenges and the cooperation between politics and science.

During the award ceremony, the award winners were then allowed to present the main content of their work to the audience. Prof. Dr. Deborah Schanz, who had supervised the award-winning work with her institute, was very pleased, after the restrictions of the Corona years, about the numerous guests from financial administration, jurisdiction, academia and practice who had come to listen attentively to the presentations.

Marlon Schöllkopf, B.Sc. dealt with the income tax treatment of mining and staking of cryptocurrencies in his bachelor thesis. A topic that has been controversially discussed among experts due to the strong boom of virtual currencies in recent years and has not lost any of its high relevance in legislation, case law and practice until today.

Master student Stefanie Pettmesser, M.Sc. presented in her thesis the option model of §1a KStG for partnerships, which gives them the possibility to be treated like a corporation for income tax purposes without an actual change of legal form. This is intended as a further step towards taxation independent of the legal form, among other things in order to mitigate the disadvantages that have so far existed for partnerships with regard to the tax framework. In doing so, it addressed the tax regulatory content and its effects.

Dr. Georg Bauer was honored for his outstanding dissertation on the taxation of digitalized business models - challenges and solutions. During the presentation of the thesis, the importance for future developments and the breadth of the topics dealt with were impressively highlighted.

The present members of the top-class board of trustees Dr. Hans-Josef Thesling (current president of the Federal Fiscal Court), Andreas Schaflitzl (partner at Linklaters) and Prof. Dr. h.c. Rudolf Mellinghoff (Director LMUDigiTax and Institute of Finance and Taxes, former President of the Federal Fiscal Court) honored the outstanding achievements of the three award winners in their laudation. They emphasized the high academic and practical relevance of the work.

Afterwards, guests and award winners had the opportunity to exchange ideas at a reception. The next award ceremony will take place on 3 June 2024. (PDF, 170 KB)