Tax investigation
The tax investigation (abbreviation: Steufa) is an organizational part of the German state tax authorities . Your tasks are to uncover and investigate unknown tax cases, to research tax offenses and tax offenses and to determine the tax bases in these proceedings. The tax investigation department is only responsible for investigations into the taxes administered by the federal states. The Customs Investigation Service carries out investigations into taxes, duties and charges administered by the federal government . The tax investigation is organized in tax investigation offices at selected tax offices . In some German federal states these are dependent agencies, in other federal states there are tax offices set up exclusively for the prosecution of tax offenses and tax offenses.
Legal bases
The legal basis for Steufa can be found in the tax code (AO). Section 208 AO regulates the tasks of Steufa, Section 404 AO regulates the rights and obligations. A service instruction for the Steufa can be found in the fifth part of the instructions for the criminal and administrative fine proceedings (tax) .
Rights and obligations
In order to investigate tax offenses, the Steufa officials have the same rights and obligations as the authorities and police officers under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in particular the right of first access ( Section 163 (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure), the right of provisional arrest ( Section 127 (2) StPO), the questioning of the accused ( Section 163a, Paragraph 4, StPO), the hearing of witnesses ( Section 163, Paragraph 3, StPO), as well as the implementation of searches, seizures and telecommunications surveillance. Steufa can order a search or seizure in the event of imminent danger ( Section 98 (1), Section 105 (1) StPO) and look through the papers of the person affected by the search (Section 404 sentence 2 AO, Section 110 (1) StPO).
Since the officials of the Steufa are also entitled to the rights and obligations of the officials of the tax offices in the taxation procedure, they have a legal hybrid position. Your area of responsibility includes both the investigation of criminal tax matters and the determination of tax matters.
Since Steufa can act both in terms of taxation and criminal tax law, it must be clear with each action whether Steufa is active in criminal tax proceedings or in taxation proceedings. This is important because it significantly changes the rights and obligations of the taxpayer or the accused. After criminal tax proceedings have been initiated, Steufa is only active on the basis of legal bases relating to criminal proceedings. After the criminal tax proceedings have been discontinued , it can no longer rely on criminal procedural norms for requests for information to third parties, but must use the tax norm as the legal basis for the request for information.
If Steufa has carried out the investigations, it must present the audit findings that are significant for taxation and the changes in the tax bases in an audit report in accordance with Section 202 (1) AO. The audit report is to be sent to the office responsible for the tax evaluation; Section 202 (2) AO applies accordingly. If the findings have no tax implications, it may be sufficient to send a note.
Importance for tax revenue
According to statistics from the Federal Ministry of Finance, the tax investigators achieved the following results in the years 2002 to 2016:
| year | Existing additional taxes in € million |
|---|---|
| 2002 | 1540.9 |
| 2003 | 1628.7 |
| 2004 | 1613.4 |
| 2005 | 1658.0 |
| 2006 | 1433.6 |
| 2007 | 1603.8 |
| 2008 | 1474.5 |
| 2009 | 1565.8 |
| 2010 | 1745.7 |
| 2011 | 2228.6 |
| 2012 | 3079.6 |
| 2013 | 2051.2 |
| 2014 | 2451.2 |
| 2015 | 3025.3 |
| 2016 | 3179.7 |
However, the share of the legally established additional tax that is actually paid is not recorded statistically. In the area of sales tax carousels in particular, access to the so-called missing trader is often impossible or unsuccessful. The question of how much additional tax revenue the tax investigation actually generates cannot therefore be answered reliably.
literature
- Tipke / Kruse: Tax Code - Tax Court Code . Loose-leaf work, ISBN 978-3-504-22119-5 , § 208 AO.
- Streck / Spatscheck / Talaska: The tax investigation . 5th edition, 2017, ISBN 978-3-504-62318-0 .
- Uwe Hellmann : The secondary criminal procedure of the tax code . Carl Heymanns Verlag, Cologne et al. 1995, ISBN 3-452-23060-0 .
- Stefan Perschke: The admissibility of investigation methods not regulated by special law in criminal proceedings (= ORA . Volume 53). 1997, ISBN 3-452-23715-X .
- Frank Wehrheim, Michael Gösele: Inside tax investigation. A tax investigator reveals the authority's methods and secrets for the first time. Riva, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-86-883105-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Instructions for the criminal and administrative fine proceedings (tax) 2013 of October 30, 2012 (BStBl I 2012, p. 13)
- ^ Wolfgang Lübke, Ulrike Müller, Saskia Bonenberger: Tax investigation. Recognizing, avoiding, and advising situations correctly, 1st edition, Gabler, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 3-834-90638-7 .
- ↑ BFH of December 4, 2012, VIII R 5/10, HFR 2013, 200.
- ↑ bundesfinanzministerium.de
- ^ Federal Ministry of Finance - Prosecution of tax offenses and tax offenses in 2015. November 21, 2016, accessed on April 25, 2018 .
- ^ Federal Ministry of Finance - Prosecution of tax offenses and tax offenses in 2015. November 21, 2016, accessed on April 25, 2018 .
- ^ Federal Ministry of Finance - Prosecution of tax offenses and tax offenses in 2015. November 21, 2016, accessed on April 25, 2018 .
- ^ Federal Ministry of Finance - Prosecution of tax offenses and tax offenses in 2015. November 21, 2016, accessed on April 25, 2018 .
- ^ Federal Ministry of Finance - Prosecution of tax offenses and tax offenses in 2015. November 21, 2016, accessed on April 25, 2018 .
- ↑ Monthly report of the BMF November 2017. November 30, 2017, accessed on April 25, 2018 .
