Greens warn of job cuts among federal auditors
Fears that cuts will make it more difficult to detect cum-cum and cum-ex transactions
Quick Look
- The Greens in the Bundestag criticize planned savings for federal auditors.
- Financial politician Katharina Beck warns of more difficult investigations into cum-cum and cum-ex tax fraud and points to significant additional income from staff.
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Why It Matters
Planned savings in the federal budget also affect tax authorities. Cum-Ex and Cum-Cum are complex tax fraud models involving stocks and dividends.
The Greens in the Bundestag fear that planned job cuts among federal auditors will make it more difficult to detect cum-cum and cum-ex transactions.
“It is completely nonsensical that the federal government wants to save money where the jobs are worth many times over - at the federal auditors,” said financial politician Katharina Beck of the German Press Agency. This exacerbates the budget situation and worsens the situation for companies, which often suffer from delayed and lengthy audits.
Every position here is also financially worthwhile - because the state earns an average of almost nine million euros for each auditor who carries out audits together with the states. In fact, the federal government reported an “additional tax result” of 4.37 billion euros for last year. As can be seen from the Finance Ministry's response to a parliamentary question, 492 auditor positions were filled at the Federal Central Tax Office in the same period.
Beck: Too little personnel power for cum-cum detection
Their work therefore also supports the “discovery or tax assessment” of cum-ex and cum-cum transactions. This involves tax fraud based on moving shares back and forth around the dividend record date. In cum-ex transactions, those involved had capital gains taxes refunded on dividends that were never paid. In the case of internationally more complex cum-cum transactions, the capital gains tax that was actually due was avoided from the outset.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Central Tax Office is currently processing six proceedings in connection with cum-cum transactions with a recovery amount of around 46 million euros. That is negligible, said Beck. The tax damage caused by cum-cum, estimated by scientists, is a multiple of this at up to 28.5 billion euros. “There are still only 37 employees available at the Federal Central Tax Office to deal with these extremely complex cases, and worse yet, positions in supporting departments are in danger of being cut,” criticized the Green politician.
Open Questions
- How many jobs exactly should be cut?
- Which departments are affected by the cuts?
