When a podcast begins with the sentence "Today we are talking about the new decrees on One, Paragraph Two-a and One, Paragraph Two-b of the Real Estate Transfer Tax Act", it is easy to assume that this is a proven expert in the field of real estate taxation. However, all non-experts are advised to ignore the first impulse and dive a little deeper into the current episode of the real estate tax podcast PropTax #3/2022.

In the conversation with Dirk Krohn, Thomas Wagner and his partner Stefan Behrens succeed in giving a catchy treatment to the quite unwieldy topic of "GLE v. 10.5.2022 on § 1 para. 2a and 2b GrEStG" - the entire title of the episode. The WiSo students can also consider themselves lucky because Thomas Wagner has been a lecturer for "Financial Services and Real Estate Taxation" at the University of Cologne for more than ten years, connected to the Chair of Business Taxation of the WiSo Faculty.

But it is not only the WiSo students who benefit from Professor Wagner's expertise. As a partner at the Düsseldorf auditing company Grant Thornton, he advises numerous investors, capital management companies and property owners on the tax aspects of their real estate investments in Germany. He is the author of numerous publications on tax law and has published well over 50 articles on real estate tax issues.

Beyond the PropTax podcast, the fact that Professor Wagner is committed to imparting knowledge is evidenced by his active lecturing activities. Thomas Wagner is also active in this regard on an honorary basis, for example as head of the annual "Cologne Tax Conference on Real Estate Taxation" of the Institute of Tax Consultants (Fachinstitut der Steuerberater).

We are pleased to honour Thomas Wagner as a committed expert who has remained associated with the WiSo Faculty for many years. We hope that his applied perspective on real estate taxation and financial services will continue to enrich our teaching in Accounting and Taxation for many years to come.