Flick Gocke Schaumburg is one of the leading legal and tax advisory firms for all civil society organizations. Our clients include non-profit foundations and associations, charities, professional associations, scientific and educational institutions, museums and cultural organizers, sports associations and clubs, and international non-profit organizations. We advise the initiators of charitable projects, such as founders, as well as persons supported or employed by charitable organizations, such as members of governing bodies, researchers, and athletes. Our clients also include legal persons under public law such as churches, broadcasting corporations, universities, hospitals, pension funds, and non-profit subsidiaries in the public sector, for example on the legal and tax structuring of cooperations. In addition, we advise fundraising agencies and organizations responsible for non-independent foundations, such as banks and savings banks.
We provide comprehensive legal and tax advice to non-profit associations, foundations, limited liability companies, cooperatives, stock corporations, and organizations from all areas of civil society. Our advice encompasses governance matters, drafting contracts in respect of charitable work, the appropriateness of key business policy decisions, for example the remuneration of board members, and potential conflicts of interest. We are experts in non-profit law, association law and foundation law, all types of taxation, and business management issues. We support our clients in CSR projects, in transactions and reorganizations (mergers, spin-offs, changes of legal form, etc.), in tax audits, and in proceedings before the foundation supervisory authorities, for example when articles of association and structures are amended. We also advise charitable organizations on accounting matters and building compliance systems. In addition, we represent clients before the financial, administrative and civil courts, for example in liability and board disputes.
We are opinion leaders who regularly publish in trade journals and hold presentations across Germany. We work with leading associations in the non-profit sector and keep a close eye on developments in the third sector. In addition, we maintain close contacts with leading academics, judges, and senior administrators in the third sector, both from the tax authorities and the foundation supervisory authorities in the federal states.
All contacts and experts
Our expertise at a glance
- Formation, choice of legal form
- Corporate governance
- Use of funds
- Cooperations
- Cross-border projects
- Sale and purchase of assets (e.g. corporate investments)
- Restructuring (e.g. mergers, spin-offs, change of legal form)
- CSR project design
- Foundation structuring in relation to succession planning
- Non-profit status
- Corporate income tax, trade tax
- VAT
- Capital withholding tax
- Wage tax, social security
- Payroll accounting
- Tax audits
- Representation before association registers and commercial registers
- Representation before the authorities supervising foundations
- Litigation before tax and administrative courts
- Litigation before civil courts (e.g. in disputes between foundation bodies)
- Preparing and auditing annual financial statements
- Valuing investments in companies, real estate and other assets
- Preparing impairment certificates for restructuring projects
- Law of not-for-profit organizations
- Donations law
- Foundation Law and Association Law
- VAT
- International Tax Law
- Public funding law
- Bodies: remuneration, liability, disputes
- Insolvency law, restructuring
- Labor and employment law
- Data privacy law
- Competition and antitrust law
- Litigation
- Appropriateness and structuring
- Practical implementation
- In-house training programs
FGS Treuhandgesellschaft für Stiftungsvermögen mbH is a responsible body for non-independent foundations, and manages and administers foundations with legal capacity.
FGS Digital GmbH develops IT solutions for tax departments.
Further information
Brochure: Our advisory for non-profit organizations (in German)
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Interview: Take a look behind the scenes (in German)
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Tax & law blog:
Articles on foundations and non-profit organizations
Tax law:
Taxation of public-law entities
Taxation of private individuals
Inheritance tax and gift tax
Auditing and business valuation:
Tax returns
Preparing annual financial statements
Bookkeeping (corporate entities, family offices, private clients)
Client focus:
Family-owned businesses
Private clients
Family offices