Discriminatory Gift Taxation of Transfers between Domestic versus Foreign Family Foundations – Opinion Statement ECJ-TF 1/2026 on the Decision of the CJEU of 13 November 2025 in Familienstiftung v. Finanzamt Köln-West (Case C-142/24)

In this CFE Opinion Statement, submitted to the EU Institutions in January 2026, the CFE ECJ Task Force comments on the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)’s decision of 13 November 2025 in Familienstiftung v. Finanzamt Köln-West (Case C-142/24), which concerns the different treatment, for gift tax purposes, of transfers made to German family foundations compared to their foreign equivalent. Following Advocate General Sánchez-Bordona’s Opinion, the Court held that the different treatment was justified as a coherent system, in which a direct link existed between the gift tax benefit and the burden of a “substitute inheritance tax” only imposed on domestic foundations.