Intellectual Property plays an increasingly important role in all industries and economic sectors. On the one hand, purely digital companies are already basically dependent on domains, software and patents, but on the other hand this also applies more and more to once purely “analog” industries. If the intangible asset is in the private assets and is leased or leased to the company, there is a risk of a so-called business split. A later tax-free exploitation of Intellectual Property is then no longer possible!
1. What is Intellectual Property?
“Intellectual Property” is the English term for intellectual property. Tax law also refers to intangible (“intangible”) assets. Such assets are, for example, software, patents, but also domains and brand names. A customer or client base also represents an intangible economic asset, but this is not classified under intellectual property due to the lack of a certain level of creation.
Since Intellectual Property is basically an asset and therefore a taxable asset, the general principles of allocation apply to business and private assets. They are primarily regulated by R 4.2, paragraph 1, EStR, where:
This article does not replace tax or legal advice in an individual case. Facts, current law, jurisdiction, documentation and implementation remain decisive.