Government tax audits rake in additional billions.
Huge sums of money are absent from the federal budget. One potential solution is to up the income. The Finance Ministry has been increasing revenue for years using tax audits. In previous times, much more money was swiped away, complains the Left Party. They're asking for additional staff.
The German government generated around 13 billion euros extra last year from tax audits, as responded in early May by the FDP-led Federal Ministry of Finance to a query from the Left Party. Left Party finance expert Christian Görke disapproved of the current situation, with numerous job openings still empty in tax authorities. This leaves the state missing out on big bucks that the SPD, Greens, and FDP coalition government could use in the budget conflict.
The Finance Ministry claims the added tax revenue from tax audits at 13.2 billion euros. In 2022, it was 10.8 billion euros. However, Görke mentioned even higher amounts in the past, "In 2009, the auditors achieved a surplus of 21 billion euros; at today's prices, that would be 28 billion euros." Each auditor generates around a million euros in additional tax revenue. "It would be a must to deal with the staff growth, especially at the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) and in the tax offices."
Tax offices have close to 7000 job vacancies
According to the parliamentary question, there were more than 6,800 full-time positions unoccupied in the federal tax offices at the end of 2023. There were 225 jobs at the BZSt. "The state is missing out on tax revenue because the tax offices are understaffed in audit and tax examination areas," Görke said. "Despite promises of progress from the federal government to increase staff and audits, there hasn't been any real change. The support from the federal government with auditors at the Federal Central Tax Office seems to be pure bluster, as the number of auditors remains on the decline."
The reasons behind the vacancies were not shared in the letter. There are roughly 97,350 full-time positions filled in the tax offices. At the BZSt, there are around 2,000. 12,400 of these positions are for tax auditors, while there are over 400 at the BZSt.
In terms of numbers, large companies were audited the most in 2023, with an almost 18% rate. The rate for micro-companies was less than 1%. It follows that large companies, which accounted for over ten billion euros in additional revenue from these audits, were audited the most.
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- Despite the additional 13.2 billion euros in tax revenue generated from tax audits in 2021, the Left Party's finance expert, Christian Görke, argues that the Federal Ministry of Finance should increase staff at tax authorities, as there are still over 6,800 job vacancies in federal tax offices.
- Christian Lindner, the FDP leader who heads the Federal Ministry of Finance, has been implementing tax audits to increase revenue, but The Left Party criticizes this approach, emphasizing that understaffing in tax offices leads to missed tax revenue opportunities, such as the 28 billion euros from 2009 that could have been recovered with adequate staffing.
- As the Left Party requests additional staff at the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) and in tax offices, Christian Lindner's government must address the ongoing tax fraud issue, which contributes to the significant tax revenue gap in Germany, affected by both underfunded tax audits and employee shortages.
Source: www.ntv.de
