A widely anticipated tax-fuelled M&A boom in Germany is under threat thanks to a bid by the country’s federal states to neutralise a tax cut that is designed to free up the economy.

Germany’s forthcoming Tax Reform Act, which scraps tax on the disposal of cross-holdings in German companies as of 1 January 2002, has been a key driver for the massive investment a host of UK and US firms have ploughed into Europe’s largest economy.