Design from Ministry of Finance: Against Tax fraud: Evidence should be lifted longer

According to the will of Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, companies in Germany will have to keep booking documents and invoices longer in the future. To better combat tax fraud, his house is planning to extend the corresponding retention periods to ten years, said the SPD politician of the German Press Agency.

“This enables investigations to be longer,” said Klingbeil. In addition, his house wanted to create “further investigative instruments” in the fight against tax evasion, undeclared work, money laundering and financial crime. Klingbeil announced that he will present the legal proposals for this before the summer break.

“Further investigative instruments” mean, for example, the use of an automated data analysis for tracking down undeclared work. As a result, larger amounts of data could be evaluated in the future, it was said to explain the Ministry of Klingbeil. Even in close exchange with the federal states, the federal government wanted to look at the permanently, “where it could be re -sharpened”.

Klingbeil: Fight against tax evasion “essential”

Klingbeil emphasized: “We make a harder gait when it comes to acting against criminals who are enriched at the expense of the general public.” For him, the fight against tax evasion is “essential”-also to secure income and “the state’s ability to act”, said the SPD politician.

Ex-finance minister Lindner had shortened deadline for eight years

With the decision to extend the retention periods for booking documents again, the ministry wants to reverse a decision from the previous legislative period. Under Klingbeil’s predecessor Christian Lindner (FDP), the retention periods had been shortened from ten to eight years for the purpose of reducing bureaucracy.

“After weighing up with the aim of consistent persecution of the tax fraud,” the ministry wants to extend it again. This would also take up a proposal that associations would have formulated in the fight against tax evasion, it said.

Longer deadline should also help in the fight against cum-cum business

According to Klingbeil, the planned extension of the deadline also plays a role to combat so-called cum-cum business. In the case of CUM-CUM businesses, foreign actors incorrectly claim the reimbursement of capital gains tax, although they are not justified.

These businesses had caused a “huge economic damage to the general public”, it said from the Ministry of Finance. In order to consistently pursue these machinations, documents should be available longer.