Germany: 8th Frankfurt Tax Congress

Dr. Thomas Schänzle is co-head of the German Tax Practice Group. He has extensive experience in providing tax advice to German and foreign multinationals on complex domestic and international corporate tax issues with strong focus on deal related tax structuring and internal optimized group reorganizations. Thomas joined Baker McKenzie in April 2018 after having held the position as International Tax Partner at PwC for 6 years. He holds a diploma in International Business Administration from the European Business School (ebs) and is a certified German tax advisor since 2001. On top of that, Thomas holds a PhD in International Taxation and a Certificate in International Accounting (CINA). Thomas has published numerous tax articles during his professional career and is a frequent speaker at national and international tax conferences and, inter alia, a member of the Tax Committee of Frankfurt's Chamber of Commerce and IFA.

Dr. Stephan Schnorberger works for international businesses to facilitate cross-border activities in today's tax environment and to advocate the rule of law in transfer price controversies. Stephan also supports businesses by economic analysis and advocacy in competition matters such as business combinations, cartel damage cases and questions of abuse market power. Stephan is recurrently recognized as top advisor in international tax and transfer pricing on a global and national scale in industry rankings such as Euromoney Expert Guides, Wirtschaftswoche, Handelsblatt Research Institute, JUVE.

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Dr. Stephan Behnes is a partner and member of Baker McKenzie's German Tax Practice Group in Frankfurt. He advises corporate companies, banks and other financial institutions with regard to German and international tax law. Before joining the Firm in July 2015, he was a partner of a major international auditing and advisory firm and also worked in one of the leading international law firms in Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and Amsterdam.

Dr. Philipp Klinker is a partner and member of Baker McKenzie's German Tax Practice Group in Frankfurt since October 2022. He advises a broad range of clients, in particular banks and other financial institutions, in all German and European VAT related matters. Prior to joining the Firm, Philipp worked as an associated partner for one of the leading German law firms. Philipp started his professional career at EY and KPMG. He later (2017-2019) served as Head of VAT Germany at Commerzbank. Philipp holds a diploma in Business Administration and is a certified German tax advisor since 2011. On top of that, he holds a PhD in Business Administration. Philipp has published numerous tax articles during his professional career.

Jochen Meyer-Burow is a German attorney at law with a Master degree in German Tax Law, and an LL.M. in Indirect Taxation and Information Technology Law of the University of London. Mr. Meyer-Burow frequently authors legal articles and comments on current VAT matters in domestic and international publications. He is a regular contributor of the VAT advisor journal in Germany (UStB) and a commentator in the upcoming HDS-commentary for German value added taxes. Mr. Meyer-Burow is a Member of the firms European VAT Steering Committee and was an active member of Baker McKenzie’s European Indirect Tax Practice which received the first European Indirect Tax Firm of the Year Award. He has been listed among leading Indirect Tax Experts for several years (International Tax Review). Together with Baker McKenzie’s German Tax Practice Group, he was nominated for several Juve Awards, contributing one of his larger retail-related cases he shared in the European Media & Entertainment Tax Team of the Year Award for Baker McKenzie in 2012 (ITR). Prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Meyer-Burow worked as a VAT attorney with PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG in Germany, and as legal counsel in New York and London.

Ariane Schaaf is a Counsel in the Indirect Tax practice of the Firm’s Frankfurt office. She works in the area of value added tax as an attorney-at-law since 2007. Prior to joining Baker McKenzie in 2011, she worked for KPMG as a member of the indirect tax services team for more than three years.

Christoph Becker joined Baker McKenzie in 2006. Christoph co-heads the German Tax Practice Group of Baker McKenzie. He has ten years of experience in advising clients in the field of international and domestic German tax law.