Albert Füracker still has time until the last day of January. By then, the Ministry of Finance, which is headed by the CSU politician, is to inform the state parliament of the number of cases in which the Bavarian tax authorities are investigating suspected tax evasion in commercial tax havens. The SPD parliamentary group, which has given the ministry this short deadline, would also like more information on this subject. The SPD parliamentary group led by Florian von Brunn refers to their constitutionally guaranteed right to comprehensive answers from the government to questions from the state parliament. And here it is after all “fundamental questions of tax justice and tax enforcement”.
There is a reason why the SPD is bringing the Constitutional Court into play, i.e. waving the fence post. Group leader Brunn asked the government in December how many cases had been investigated in Bavaria in the past ten years on suspicion of trade tax violations. On January 20, Finance Minister Füracker replied that the number of investigations into trade tax evasion was “statistically not recorded separately.”
What Füracker did not mention: In December 2021, the State Tax Office asked all tax offices in Bavaria for reports on exactly this topic. Including details in such cases. The tax offices should reply to the state office by January 17, 2021. A day later, Minister Füracker answered a question from the Greens in the state parliament about such suspected cases just as negatively as he did three days later, on January 20, to the question from the SPD.
Trade tax havens like Grünwald near Munich, where companies only pay low taxes, are a sensitive issue anyway. There are a number of indications that quite a few companies settle in such places only for appearances. Trade tax is a municipal tax. Cities and municipalities are largely free to set the amount. Grünwald, for example, is content with a so-called multiplier of 240 and has thus attracted thousands of companies. In the directly adjacent state capital Munich, the value is 490, more than twice as high. The assessment rate is a factor that is used to determine the tax to be paid.
The huge gap annoys Munich city politicians. And now the SPD and the Greens in the state parliament are angry about Finance Minister Füracker’s lack of willingness to provide information. The Greens are also digging deeper and want Füracker to provide the figures from the survey by the State Tax Office. The state office describes itself as a “link” between the Ministry of Finance and the tax offices. Green MP Tim Pargent complains that Minister Füracker answered “only very thinly”.
The SZ sent the following questions to the Ministry of Finance: Why didn’t Füracker inform the state parliament about the state office’s survey? In the Ministry of Finance and the Bavarian Treasury, the left hands don’t know what the right hands are doing? Or should the fact that there is this current query and the resulting findings remain hidden from the state parliament?
Tax dumping is massively damaging to society
The Ministry of Finance replied that the questions from the state parliament had been answered “completely and correctly” according to the respective state of knowledge. The state office’s survey is a “purely administrative letter”. The Ministry of Finance has not yet received the results of the survey. A progress report is planned, which should serve as a basis for “possible improvements” in the tax audit of companies.
The Greens still see some catching up to do. Tax dumping in commercial tax havens is massively damaging to society, says MP Pargent. The state government must finally take a close look and take action against illegal practices. With its survey, the State Office for Taxes aims primarily at so-called office service companies. There are several of them in Grünwald. They offer small offices for little money to companies that want to have an address in the Munich suburb in order to save on trade tax; including mail and telephone service.
The state office sees a “particular” risk here for an incorrect assessment of trade tax. Finance Minister Füracker has already replied to the state parliament that there is evidence that companies based in Munich have in individual cases relocated the headquarters of companies with a high effective trade tax burden “on purpose and only for appearances”. In communities whose assessment rates are significantly lower.