Turkey is sending bank data to Germany for the first time.
But not only tax evaders who have parked their money on the Bosporus are threatened with unpleasant mail from the tax office.
Istanbul / Berlin - Tax evasion is often perceived in Germany as a "trivial offense".
Those who successfully evade taxes are celebrated and the state was again wiped out.
As a result, the tax authorities lose hundreds of millions of euros in tax revenue every year.
Money that is then missing elsewhere.
In order to find out about tax evaders, buying up records of tax evaders has paid off.
For the first time in 2006, in the "Lichtenstein Affair", records from a whistleblower about German tax evaders were purchased.
But this method harbors legal risks, and it is often unclear where the data comes from and how it was obtained.
Tax evasion: international cooperation makes it more and more difficult for criminals
Internationally, Germany is therefore participating in the so-called "Automatic Exchange of Information" (AIA).
In order to be able to track tax evaders globally, more than 100 countries and territories are now participating in the exchange of information on tax-relevant data.
This makes it increasingly difficult for criminals to smuggle income, for example from dividends or interest, past the tax authorities.
According to a listing by the OECD, Turkey * has been an official member of the AEOI for three years.
As
Spiegel
reports, the country is now providing detailed information on bank data to the Federal Republic for the first time.
So if you have secret accounts or custody accounts in Turkey and do not report the income to the tax office, you should soon get mail.
Tax evasion: These countries are following the example of Turkey
In addition to Turkey, according to
Spiegel
, tax havens such as Singapore, Ecuador and Kazakhstan have also been persuaded to give up their banking secrets and transfer relevant data to partner countries over the past four years.
The holiday islands of the Maldives have long been an insider tip among tax evaders.
These also want to transmit tax data to the German tax office for the first time in 2021.
The example of Turkey or the Maldives will then be followed by Kenya, Jamaica and Morocco next year.
Thailand, Jordan and Montenegro are expected to provide bank details by 2023 at the latest.
Tax evaders should therefore face an unpleasant awakening.
Tax evasion: Voluntary disclosure is only possible to a limited extent
According to an OECD analysis, however, there are major deficits in twelve countries that officially participate in the AEOI.
These include countries such as the Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curaçao, Central American Belize, Israel and Romania.
According to
Spiegel
, experts fear incomplete or incorrect data sets.
The air for criminals is getting thinner and thinner.
As soon as the data has been transmitted to the tax office, the act is deemed to have been exposed.
Self-indictments that mitigate or exempt punishment, as has happened in the past, are then no longer possible.
Tax evasion: There are severe penalties
The penalties are severe: by default, there is a risk of back payment plus a six percent interest surcharge.
In addition, up to two net monthly salaries (60 daily rates) are due for an evasion sum of 5,000 euros.
A custodial sentence threatens from an evaded sum of 50,000 euros.
How long you then have to go to prison depends on the individual case.
The only way out: The "complete" voluntary disclosure before the data was transmitted to Germany.
To this end, tax evaders have to report all concealed income taxable income from the past ten years.
Tax evaders in Turkey: September 30th
There is not much time left for tax evaders who have parked capital in Turkey. As
Spiegel
reports, there are many indications that Turkey will transmit the data by September 30th. It is unclear over what period of time the data will stretch. According to the OECD, there are many indications that the Turkish authorities have recorded relevant data on interest rates, dividends and equity gains since 2019.
On the other hand, Rainer Biesgen, partner at the law firm Wessing & Partner in Düsseldorf, has a different opinion.
The tax expert believes it is more likely that only investment income from 2020 will be reported.
According to Biesgen, "the website of the Turkish Ministry of Finance so far only mentions data on capital income that has been credited to bank customers over the past year".
Tax expert: Affected are millions of German citizens with Turkish roots
According to Biesgen, many of the roughly three million German citizens with Turkish roots are affected.
He assumes that "a significant number of them have bank accounts in Turkey".
The first clients have already commissioned him to prepare voluntary disclosures.
After all, data on tax evaders are not only transmitted via the AEOI. According to Spiegel information, Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) recently bought a CD from Dubai that contains data from thousands of Germans on land and real estate in the emirate. For many, this threatens unpleasant mail from the tax office. * M
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