. . Germany - the taxman cometh

[BlightyBoy]

How bad or good is the audit letter if you compare with 'on site audits' or 'dawn raids'? Anyone else received such letter before?

I have german colleagues who have also received a request for an audit, and my own Steuerberater has also indicated that I am almost "due" an audit.

This is nothing to worry about and is common practice - it even happens to large companies (BMW, Opel etc.) and should not necessarily be considered as a preamble to some larger, more in-depth investigation.

[Cameron Wallace]

Germany

I've heard all of these stories as well and although I reckon several are beatups by the management companies I know of at least 1 guy that is going through an investigation at the moment. I worked there for a year and was a little concerned so I went and saw my management company and they assured me I was ok but who the hell knows. Surely the management companies are going to be primarily responsible as they were the ones that made the payments?

[Edelweiss]

The reason for the visit is that they DON'T have the proof...
CK

When I was Raided they already had an estimation "Schätzung" of the amount of Back-Tax to be paid which they said came from the Agent, P+Z, who denied this happened, but 2 years later when I got the Report of my case that is exactly what happened...

It's a set-up and the all the German companies were fully aware we got a Tax break. Funny how the blame is being passed fully to us "Auslanders". I'm not a Criminal, I just went to work in Germany on the same Split system as everyone else and it was no secret.

Now I'm skint and on the black list. The people that ran the whole show all walked.

[JustMe]

When I was Raided they already had an estimation "Schätzung" of the amount of Back-Tax to be paid which they said came from the Agent, P+Z, who denied this happened, but 2 years later when I got the Report of my case that is exactly what happened...

It's a set-up and the all the German companies were fully aware we got a Tax break. Funny how the blame is being passed fully to us "Auslanders". I'm not a Criminal, I just went to work in Germany on the same Split system as everyone else and it was no secret.

Now I'm skint and on the black list. The people that ran the whole show all walked.

were you raided in Germany , or outside Germany.

[SalsaFever]

When I was Raided they already had an estimation "Schätzung" of the amount of Back-Tax to be paid which they said came from the Agent, P+Z, who denied this happened, but 2 years later when I got the Report of my case that is exactly what happened...

Were you working with an MC by that time?
P+Z is a local German agency, so they are obligated to provide details to f-amt.

However, if you have used an MC, the contract /(or let's say the business transaction) between P+Z and MC would not be necessarily your problem.

So what P+Z reported to f-amt would not be considered as 'the money you received', but what MC charges for your services. The difference would be the MC's profit.

Bottomline is that f-amt has nothing to say if a European company (from UK, CH whatever) provide services in Germany and charge to the end client.

There is always been greater risks associated working with German agencies, given the fact that they are always within reach of f-amt (and willing to disclose anything to save themselfs)

The best setup to reduce risk would be working with an international end-client through an UK agency + non-germany based management company. So f-amt would have very hard time to reach out any of involved parties.

[tim123]

When I was Raided they already had an estimation "Schätzung" of the amount of Back-Tax to be paid which they said came from the Agent, P+Z, who denied this happened, but 2 years later when I got the Report of my case that is exactly what happened...

It's a set-up and the all the German companies were fully aware we got a Tax break. Funny how the blame is being passed fully to us "Auslanders". I'm not a Criminal, I just went to work in Germany on the same Split system as everyone else and it was no secret.
.

So you should have declared the income on your tax return then.

Hiding behind professional advice is no defence.

tim

[actonbabie]

So presumably P+Z should have declared their payments to their bogus

offshore company to the Tax office as well,... for an unknown service carried

out by unknown people and they had no idea that

it was being paid to their employees. otherwise it would have appeared on

their employee's tax card

The tax office would appear to have accepted these payments by the employer as all OK.

Anyone working in Germany on a split deal should leave today, the tax office

are allowing these schemes to run until the debts are large enough to make a

splash in their Tax weekly newsletter.

[Edelweiss]

were you raided in Germany , or outside Germany.

Bayern (If you call that Germany)

[Edelweiss]

Were you working with an MC by that time?
P+Z is a local German agency, so they are obligated to provide details to f-amt...

No, I was an "Employee" and P+Z didn't put my full wages on the Tax Card. The MC payed us the Split and everything was controlled by P+Z and I've never been Ltd.

What they tell you is it's all your fault, I think to protect German interests.

[Edelweiss]

So you should have declared the income on your tax return then.

Hiding behind professional advice is no defence.

tim

I'm not hiding anything. I was paid a Split the same as everyone else. Declaring that would've made me a Supergrass.

As Tax Class 1 I had no obligation to make a Declaration anyway. It's twisted logic to say I had other World Wide Income when it was all from Germany. They're just passing the buck to the people at the bottom of the pile.

I know for a fact all parties involed knew I/we were given a Tax break. It's a sick joke for them to pretend they didn't know when they can even monitor bank transfers.

Why don't the Client companies control the rate like in the English speaking World so there is no chance to hide income?

Answer: Germany is corrupt and they've been shoveling money into Switzerland since the War and now they want to blame inocent Tommys like me.