Account register

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The account register , also known as the central account register , is a database managed centrally by the Austrian Federal Minister of Finance , in which account master data is recorded for all accounts at Austrian banks . The banks are obliged to provide this data on an ongoing basis. The account register records who has which accounts with which banks and who is allowed to access these accounts.

The legal basis is the Account Register and Account Inspection Act (KontRegG) , which was announced in the Federal Law Gazette, Federal Law Gazette I No. 116/2015 and which came into force on January 1, 2017 .

The legal service provider for the account register is the Austrian Federal Computing Center (BRZ GmbH).

chronology

As part of the 2015/2016 tax reform, the so-called “banking package” was passed in the Austrian National Council on July 7, 2015 ; the KontRegG is part of this package. The account register has been in operation since August 10, 2016 and has been available for query since October 5, 2016. Data collection began retrospectively as of March 1, 2015.

Data collected

The recorded master data include B.

Transaction data, ie account balances or revenues are, however, not stored in the account register.

The recorded data must be stored for 10 years from the end of the year in which the account or custody account is closed.

Inspection

The register of accounts cannot be viewed publicly. In Austria, (senior) public prosecutor's offices , criminal courts, financial criminal and tax authorities and the Federal Finance Court can view the account register, although they are only allowed to do so in the course of tax and financial criminal proceedings and only if this is expedient and appropriate.

In the case of inquiries by financial criminal authorities or courts, the person asked is not informed. In the case of inquiries by the tax authorities, notification takes place exclusively via FinanzOnline . Every query from the account register must be logged and the log must be kept for 10 years.

The so-called account inspection must be distinguished from the inspection of the account register . While the query of the account register does not reveal any details on account movements and balances, the latter details can be seen during the account inspection (= opening an account at the bank).

purpose

The account register is intended on the one hand to ensure tax fairness and tax transparency and on the other hand to combat tax fraud , tax evasion and money laundering .

criticism

There were or are fears in the room that the account register would de facto mean the farewell to banking secrecy and would lead to the transparent citizen . The number of information given to authorities from the register of accounts is also criticized.

From a different point of view, the account register also improves data protection: Before the introduction of the account register, the authorities had to send inquiries to all banks just to find out which banks a certain person had accounts with. All banks were thus informed when the authorities investigated a specific person.

statistics

Information given to authorities from the register of accounts
year Number of
information provided 		Change
compared to the previous year 		swell
2016 1,026 n / A.
2017 6,297 + 53.4%
2018 6,757 + 07.3%
2019 7,454 + 10.3%
  1. ↑ Annual total of all information obtained from the account register of:
    • (Higher) public prosecutor's offices and criminal courts according to § 4 Paragraph 1 Z 1 KontRegG (according to the Federal Ministry of Justice )
    • Financial criminal authorities for financial criminal purposes according to § 4 Abs. 1 Z 2 KontRegG (according to the Federal Ministry of Finance )
    • Federal finance court for financial criminal purposes according to § 4 Abs. 1 Z 2 KontRegG (according to Federal Ministry of Finance)
    • Federal tax authorities for tax purposes in accordance with § 4 Paragraph 1 Z 3 KontRegG (according to the Federal Ministry of Finance)
    • Federal finance court for tax purposes according to § 4 Abs. 1 Z 3 KontRegG (according to the Federal Ministry of Finance)
    • Tax authorities in proceedings for the assessment of income tax , corporation tax or sales tax according to Section 4 (5) KontRegG (according to the Federal Ministry of Finance)
  2. ↑ year of introduction; only 4th  quarter of 2016 relevant
  3. ↑ Change extrapolated, based on 4 times the number from the 4th quarter of 2016

Comparable regulations in other countries

This section presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

Germany

In Germany, government agencies can access the master data to be maintained by the credit institutions centrally via BaFin . See the main article, Accounts Receivable .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Account Register and Account Inspection Act - Federal law consolidated. In: RIS . Retrieved March 29, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Account register and account inspection. In: BMF . Retrieved January 17, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Information on the 2015/2016 banking package. (PDF; 166 kB) WKO , October 20, 2015, accessed on March 29, 2018 .
  4. ↑ oe1.orf.at: Central account register from autumn. In: ORF . January 4, 2016, accessed March 29, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b c 6757 information | Account register: inquiries by authorities are increasing sharply. Kleine Zeitung , April 6, 2019, accessed on January 18, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b c ORF.at, Agencies: Account register was queried over 6,000 times in 2017. In: ORF . March 28, 2018, accessed March 29, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Tom Schaffer: Expert: "Mainly resistance from the Ministry of Finance". Courier, January 30, 2018, accessed June 28, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Hartwig Löger : 167 / AB (XXVI. GP) - query response . (PDF; 526 kB) Number of information from the account register in 2016. In: parlament.gv.at . Federal Ministry of Finance , March 26, 2018, accessed on April 11, 2020 ( linked overview page ).
  9. ↑ Josef Moser : 169 / AB (XXVI.GP) - answer to the inquiry. (PDF; 587 kB) Number of information from the account register in 2016. In: parlament.gv.at . Federal Ministry for Constitution, Reforms, Deregulation and Justice , March 23, 2018, accessed on April 11, 2020 ( linked overview page ).
  10. ↑ Josef Moser : 169 / AB (XXVI. GP) - Inquiry response - Annex to questions 1 and 2. (PDF; 235 kB) Number of information from the account register in 2016. In: parlament.gv.at . Federal Ministry for Constitution, Reforms, Deregulation and Justice , March 23, 2018, accessed on April 11, 2020 ( linked overview page ).
  11. ↑ Hartwig Löger : 168 / AB (XXVI. GP) - query response . (PDF; 528 kB) Number of information from the account register in 2017. In: parlament.gv.at . Federal Ministry of Finance , March 26, 2018, accessed on April 11, 2020 ( linked overview page ).
  12. ^ Josef Moser : 170 / AB (XXVI. GP) - answer to the inquiry. (PDF; 587 kB) Number of information from the account register in 2017. In: parlament.gv.at . Federal Ministry for Constitution, Reforms, Deregulation and Justice , March 23, 2018, accessed on April 11, 2020 ( linked overview page ).
  13. ↑ Josef Moser : 170 / AB (XXVI. GP) - Inquiry response - Annex to questions 1 and 2. (PDF; 237 kB) Number of information from the account register in 2017. In: parlament.gv.at . Federal Ministry for Constitution, Reforms, Deregulation and Justice , March 23, 2018, accessed on April 11, 2020 ( linked overview page ).
  14. ↑ Hartwig Löger : 2770 / AB (XXVI. GP) - query response . (PDF; 311 kB) Information from the account register in 2018. In: parlament.gv.at . Federal Ministry of Finance , April 4, 2019, accessed on April 11, 2020 ( linked overview page ).
  15. ↑ Josef Moser : 2774 / AB (XXVI. GP) - answer to the inquiry. (PDF; 471 kB) Information from the account register in 2018. In: parlament.gv.at . Federal Ministry for Constitution, Reforms, Deregulation and Justice , April 4, 2019, accessed on April 11, 2020 ( linked overview page ).
  16. ↑ Eduard Müller : 3780 / AB (XXVI. GP) - query response. (PDF; 306 kB) Information from the account register in the first half of 2019. In: parlament.gv.at . Federal Ministry of Finance , August 23, 2019, accessed on April 11, 2020 ( linked overview page ).
  17. ↑ Clemens Jabloner : 3784 / AB (XXVI. GP) - query response. (PDF; 471 kB) Information from the account register in the first half of 2019. In: parlament.gv.at . Federal Ministry for Constitution, Reforms, Deregulation and Justice , 23 August 2019, accessed on 11 April 2020 ( linked overview page ).
  18. ↑ Gernot Blümel : 727 / AB (XXVII. GP) - query response. (PDF; 298 kB) Information from the account register in the second half of 2019. In: parlament.gv.at . Federal Ministry of Finance , March 30, 2020, accessed on April 11, 2020 ( linked overview page ).
  19. ↑ Alma Zadić : 697 / AB (XXVII. GP) - inquiry response . (PDF; 816 kB) Information from the account register in the second half of 2019. In: parlament.gv.at . Federal Ministry of Justice , March 26, 2020, accessed on April 11, 2020 ( linked overview page ).