



Welcome to the Chairs of Professor Dr Joachim Englisch and Professor Dr Marcel Krumm!
The Institute for Tax Law at the University of Münster was officially founded in 1934. On 12 April 1934, the Ministry for Science, Art and Education authorized Ottmar Bühler, who was the first holder of the chair, to use the term "Institut für Steuerrecht" (Institute for Tax Law) as the official name of what had formerly been known as "Seminar for Steuerrecht" (Seminar for Tax Law). Thus, the Institute for Tax Law is the oldest of its kind in Germany.
After Bühler retired, Friedrich Klein acted as Director from 1950 to 1974, before Paul Kirchhof, later Judge at the German Federal Constitutional Court, chaired the Institute from 1975 to 1981. In 1982, Dieter Birk was appointed Director and held the chair for almost 30 years.
Since 2011, Joachim Englisch has been Director of the Institute; since 2018, he has shared the co-directorship with Marcel Krumm.
Substantive rule of law calls for an equal distribution of the tax burden upon individual taxpayers. [...] The issues of tax justice are not transcendental; they need to be solved here, here and now.
Reforming the tax system may not be easy or popular in the short term, but it holds out the prospect of significant economic gains and hence the promise of higher living standards in the long term.


On September 17, 2026, Prof. Englisch participated as a panelist at the IFA USA’s 7th Annual Virtual International Tax Conference. Together with representatives from the European Commission, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the consulting industry, he discussed the topic: “Beyond BEPS: The Next Wave of International Tax Reform from Brussels, Paris, and New York.” His presentation focused on an analysis of the European Commission’s proposal for a “28th regime (EU Inc.).”


Editorial EC Tax Review
Professor Joachim Englisch authored the editorial for the current issue of the EC Tax Review. The nine-page article examines the European Commission’s recent trend of including tax provisions in non-tax legislative proposals and, in this regard, seeking to waive the requirement for unanimity in the Council. Professor Englisch subjects this approach to a critical assessment under primary EU law, taking into account the relevant case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. He advocates for a qualitative rather than a quantitative assessment of the relevance of tax regulations and, on this basis, arrives at a nuanced evaluation of the Commission’s latest proposals.






On June 24, Prof. Englisch delivered the keynote address at the annual conference of the Institute Finance and Taxation (IFSt) in Berlin, focusing on recent developments in European Court of Justice (ECJ) case law in the area of value-added tax. His analysis focused on the VAT implications of transfer pricing adjustments driven by income tax considerations, as well as conflicting rulings regarding the timing of input tax deductions. This was followed by a lively discussion both among the panelists and with the audience. The presentation will be published in the IFSt conference proceedings.


Professor Joachim Englisch will be offering an seminar on the topic
Influencing Behaviour through Taxation
during winter semester 2026/27 as part of the major in tax law. Detailed information may be found on the German website.