Image: HELMUT FOHRINGER (APA)
The legal basis for this was decided unanimously and thus also by the FPÖ, he said in response to a question from its Secretary General Christian Hafenecker. Kika/Leiner was treated in the same way as comparable retail groups. Hafenecker had criticized tax deferrals without collateral amounting to 150 million euros and wanted to know why they were granted. The Minister of Finance answered this with the corona-related change in the Federal Fiscal Code. The special measures decided at that time would have applied to all companies. For the most part, deferrals were granted without interest in order to relieve companies that had suffered from liquidity bottlenecks.
In view of the company’s current restructuring plan with a 20 percent quota for insolvency creditors, the tax office for large companies will submit the claims to the regional court in St. Pölten, said Brunner. At the same time, the Finanzprokuratur represents the interests of the republic, checking everything for legal conformity and whether there should be any further claims for reimbursement.
Regarding the question from NEOS mandatarin Stephanie Krisper on the role of the head of the Financial Market Authority (FMA), Eduard Müller, who, according to a media report, was involved in a tax matter in the course of the takeover of Kika and Leiner by the Signa Group around the Tyrolean investor René Benko in favor of Benkos allegedly intervened, Brunner rejected the accusation of “exclusive support”. He is committed to the rules that everyone has to follow. There is no exclusivity: “Everyone is treated equally, for me there is no doubt and no discussion.”
more from economy
