Letterbox companies: Grünwald defends itself against accusations of tax havens

Created: 01/27/2022, 09:00

By: Marc Write

The tax office is responsible for preventing dubious business models.

© symbol photo/dpa

The low tax rate makes the municipality of Grünwald a tax haven and apparently attracts more and more companies that only act as letterbox companies here.

This annoys the people of Grünwald.  

Grünwald

– The press coverage of letterbox companies in Grünwald over the past few weeks has caused quite a stir.

They are supposed to pick up the favorable tax rate in Grünwald, although they are not actually based here.

This possible practice of the tax savings model has now met with displeasure in the municipal council.

Susanne Kruse (Greens) wanted to know whether, when registering with the regulatory office, it would also be checked whether the company in question had a business premises in Grünwald or just a virtual office.

The point of a trade tax is that money flows from companies that benefit from the local infrastructure.

Susanne Kruse has a bad feeling about "if we live on tax money that we are not actually entitled to".

However, the community's hands are tied here.

Fabienne Unterreiner from the regulatory office announced that the municipal employees do not check on site whether there is an office building when registering a business - regardless of the legal form, GmbH, sole proprietorship or an AG.

Questionable business model

The day after the meeting, Treasurer Raimund Bader commented in detail on the business practices of some companies in Grünwald.

The municipality does not welcome the fact that they are aggressively advertising with the cheap tax rate.

Their business model is apparently based on it.

Bader: "According to our legal opinion, however, this is permissible and cannot be objected to by us as a municipality." According to Bader, the approximately 9,000 Grünwalder companies have to prove to the tax office that they have staff available.

The authority is responsible for the examination.

There is no question that all companies based in Grünwald benefit from the low rate.

But that also applies to all other municipalities that have a lower rate than Munich.

According to Bader, the companies, on the other hand, value where they settle: "A company that wants to have its headquarters in Munich will not move to Grünwald just because of the low rate."

Chamberlain Bader vehemently rejects the accusation that Grünwald is a tax haven.

It goes without saying that you comply with the law here.

Conversely, he interjects the question of whether perhaps the assessment rate in Munich is too high?

He read about record income from trade tax last year of 3.357 billion euros - after the pandemic-related slump in 2020, an all-time record in Munich.

Rate right anchored in the Basic Law

The fact that the 27 district municipalities and two cities should now adapt their tax rate to the city of Munich – as proposed by the economics officer of the city of Munich: “How compatible is this with Article 106 paragraph 6 of the Basic Law, in which the municipalities have their own tax rate right constitutionally anchored? "

Chamberlain Bader has always understood the municipal policy with regard to the trade in such a way that the municipality tries to attract high-tax companies.

The assessment rate in Grünwald has remained unchanged at 240 for almost 20 years, previously at 270 for more than 20 years. It was lowered in 2003 because the municipality wanted to pass on a lower trade tax levy to the companies.

Ingrid Reinhart-Maier (Greens) summed it up: "You have to be blind in one eye here if you don't see that there is a business model for virtual companies in Grünwald." She herself spoke to a Grünwalder who discovered it for himself .

He showed her three houses that he had built.

Every company has a locker there like in a swimming pool.

"This is the company headquarters.

Secretaries sit downstairs who take calls and mail for the individual companies.” But nobody from the company is in the house.

The municipality, however, since it agrees with the administration, cannot do anything about it.

The tax office is responsible for this deficiency.

"Our goal in lowering the tax rate was certainly not to open such a trade tax haven."