Customs administration objectives catalog

From 2003, the Federal Ministry of Finance introduced a catalog of customs administration objectives , with which it specified objectives in particular for the main customs offices, including customs offices , in order to encourage them to perform their tasks evenly. It is updated annually. Responsible for the implementation were initially the regional finance directorates , which were replaced by the federal finance directorates from January 1, 2008 , the customs criminal investigation office and the federal monopoly administration for spirits . The catalog of customs administration objectives for 2011 defines four strategic objectives, which are supplemented by operational objectives. The four strategic goals are:

Securing the state revenue

Strategic goal no. 1 of the catalog of customs administration goals is optimal tax collection. What is surprising about this objective is that he only strives for optimal tax collection, but not the right one, which should actually be the case. Nevertheless, this objective shows that the collection of taxes is one of the core tasks of the federal customs administration . Finally she wore z. B. 2010 with approx. 108 billion € income from consumption taxes and import sales tax to finance the federal budget of a little over 300 billion €. Why the swift and proper granting of subsidies in the agricultural, excise and monopoly areas was mentioned here cannot be fully explained. After all, subsidies do not lead to higher government revenues; on the contrary, they reduce them. The fight against subsidy fraud should actually be mentioned here.

It is obvious that even "only" optimal tax collection can only be achieved with optimal human and material resources. Although the staff share for the survey of € 108 billion is likely to be below 2%, the staff will be further reduced due to political requirements. In the meantime, there is a shortage of senior officials ( grade A 9 - 13) in particular at customs offices . However, the customs offices are still the backbone for collecting taxes.

Even the ATLAS electronic clearance procedure, which has now been introduced in the customs administration, does not necessarily lead to optimal tax collection. Since ATLAS works paperless, it is no longer possible to compare the electronic registration with the invoice or delivery note, etc. Discrepancies can then no longer be discovered at this point in time. Documents can be requested, but in practice this should remain a pious wish.

Security for the state and citizens

Strategic goal No. 2 is the efficient and effective fight against criminal offenses (import smuggling and subsidy fraud), offenses and terrorism.

Securing the social systems

Strategic goal no. 3 is to secure the social systems through efficient and effective fight against undeclared work and illegal employment as well as the collection of arrears for the social security agencies .

Legal and technical supervision

The Federal Finance Directorates and the Customs Criminal Police Office have coordinated the legal and technical supervision to be carried out permanently and providing guidance.

The qualification of the employees

In addition, the Education and Science Center of the Federal Finance Administration has to guarantee high quality, practice-related and needs-based advanced training and high-quality and practice-oriented training.

Operational goals

The operational goals serve to achieve the strategic goals.

literature

Hans-Peter Duric, The Customs Administration Targets Catalog 2006 - A Critical Analysis . In: Journal for Customs and Excise Taxes, 2008, p. 30 ff