Germany’s Spiegel magazine published an article saying Germany considers to introducing a special tax regime for intellectual property, at a tax cost of some three billion Euros.

The German Finance Ministry is working on a tax shelter that would afford companies a reduced tax rate (of 10 or 15 percent) for income derived from patents and licenses.

The move is designed to make German tax system more competitive against the so-called patent box tax regimes, that are currently effective in 10 EU member states, notably in Ireland, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg.

The “Patent Box” is a tax incentive that reduces the effective corporate tax rate on income attributable to patents, subject to certain conditions.