Training

The training goal of the Division is to prepare students for an occupation in the areas of taxation, finance and accounting, e.g. in a tax consultancy, in the tax department of a domestic or multinational enterprise or in other related fields. The focus of many of the lectures and seminars is on knowledge of practical relevance. However, students are also introduced to the theoretical basis of taxation and to the Division’s research programme. Students receive instruction by way of lectures, seminars, tutorials and colloquia. Depending on the form of the chosen course, students can obtain credits for their successful performance in examinations, extended essays, and/or presentations.

At the Faculty of Economic Sciences, the changeover from the Diploma degree to the Bologna-style three-tier system was accomplished in 2005. In the framework of the Bachelor degree study programme in Business Administration the Division offers compulsory, elective and optional courses in the modules within the areas of "Unternehmenssteuern" ('company taxes'), "Steuerliche Gewinnermittlung" ('determination of income') and "Steuerbelastung nationaler Unternehmen" ('tax burden of domestic companies') which are also available within the economics, business pedagogics and business information technology study programmes.

In the context of Master degrees, the Division participates in the study programme ‘Finance, Accounting and Taxes’. Here, the central courses are the basic module “Unternehmensbesteuerung” (‘Company taxation’), the project seminar “Mergers & Acquisitions, Finanzierung und Besteuerung” (‘Mergers & Acquisitions, Finance and Taxation’), and the seminars “Konzernbesteuerung” (‘Group Taxation’) and “Besteuerung von Unternehmen unter dem Einfluss des Europarechts” (‘Taxation of Companies under the Influence of EU Tax Law’), the latter held by the prominent tax expert Prof. Dr. Jens Blumenberg, Partner of Linklaters LLP.

On a regular basis, the Division has held an open series of lectures on topical and practice-relevant issues, attracting outstanding speakers from company practice, tax authorities, tax consultancies, the legal domain and academia. These open lectures offer students on both Bachelor and Master programmes the opportunity to become familiar with topical issues in taxation, and to consider them from various different perspectives. Students wishing to obtain credit points for their Bachelor/Master degree prepare an essay, hold an introductory presentation, and take a course-related examination, depending on the study programme. Information on previous series of lectures and content of the series currently planned is available here.

With respect to the Ph.D. study programme, the Division participates in courses offered by the 'Governance' focus group in the university Graduate School for Economics, Law and Social Sciences, the 'Göttinger Graduiertenschule Gesellschaftswissenschaften'. Examples of such courses include "Modellansätze zur Messung der effektiven Unternehmenssteuerbelastung" ('Methods for Calculating the Effective Tax Burden of Companies') and "Der Einfluss der Besteuerung auf das Verhalten von Steuerpflichtigen" ('The Influence of Taxation on the Behaviour of Taxpayers').