In recent weeks, more and more large cross-border e-commerce customers have consulted our German VAT replenishment. I feel that everyone's penalties for Germany are not particularly clear. Some domestic institutions don't know much about German tax laws. Today, I am a small editor of the German tax profession, I will give you a detailed introduction to several common tax penalties in Germany.

◆ 1. Säumniszuschlag §240 AO late payment fee

This should be the most common fine in tax matters. The late payment fee is literally the same as the tax penalty caused by the delay in paying taxes.

It is calculated as:

Tax payable (ten digits are rounded to 50 or 0) X 1% X Calculated from the next day of the tax due date, up to the date of the last remittance, the number of months involved

for example:

The company's ABC declared a value-added tax of 4,842 euros in January. According to the tax law, it is necessary to pay taxes before February 10. The company ABC finally paid the bill by bank transfer on March 17 of that year.

The late payment fee is: 4800 Euro (ten is less than 50 directly rounded off) X 1% X 2 months = 96 Euro

Note: February 11 to March 10 is the first month, and March 11 is the second month involved, so there are two months.

◆ 2. Verspätungszuschlag §152 AO Delay in filing tax declaration fines

(Including: personal income tax returns, corporate value-added tax returns, corporate income tax returns, corporate business tax returns, etc.)

For individuals or businesses, if they are obligated to file a tax return but delay the submission (if there is a delay due to uncontrollable reasons, there are other policies), this may result in a delay in filing a tax return fine. Here, it is also possible to write in the tax law. Generally speaking, the staff of each tax bureau has the right to decide whether the individual or company that submitted the tax return late will pay the delay to submit the declared fine. At the same time, in order to maximize the benefits for the client, the tax accounter will generally communicate and appeal to the client and the tax bureau, and try to avoid all or part of the customer's fine.

It is calculated by: determining the tax X 10% (10% is the maximum fine percentage, once the “penalty” is issued, the fine is a minimum of 25 euros per month and the maximum limit is 25,000 euros)

for example:

Mr. Zhang’s German personal income tax return for 2016 has not been submitted until May 2018. His personal income tax is set at 10,000 euros. In the end, he may get a fine of up to 10,000 X 10% = 1000 Euros

The latest tax law changes: starting from 2019, if the tax return should be submitted in 2018, if it is delayed, it will automatically appear a fine. Specific terms, we also need to wait until the new tax law of 2019 is issued, and then explain in detail.

◆ 3. Zwangsgeld § 329 AO mandatory fine

Delays in filing tax declaration fines (Verspätungszuschlag) are mostly accompanied by mandatory fines, which are a mandatory measure for individuals or businesses to declare as soon as possible. Before the mandatory fine is determined, a letter from the tax office for Androhung von Zwangsgeld will generally be received, which warns that a mandatory fine will be imposed if the tax return is not submitted. We can still avoid mandatory fines as long as we submit tax returns before finalizing the fine.

There is no specific calculation method. The fine for any single declaration is up to 25,000 Euros.

◆ 4. Zinsen interest

Like a bank, the tax office calculates interest on taxes that are not received within a certain period of time. If the individual or corporate tax notice (Steuerbescheid) is received 15 months after the end of the reporting year, the Inland Revenue Department will calculate 0.5% interest per month on the tax amount. For the same reason, if it is a tax refund, the tax bureau will also pay the corresponding interest to the taxpayer or the enterprise.

Calculation:

0.5% X Tax required (ten digits are 50 or 0) X (the day when the tax notice has been announced by Bekanntgabe - 15 months after the end of the reporting year)

for example:

The taxpayer Mr. Zhang’s personal income tax return for 2013 was submitted in early 2016. On August 22, 2016, the Inland Revenue Department issued his 2013 Tax Notice (Steuerbescheid). On August 25, 2016, the tax notice was deemed to have been announced (Bekanntgabe). The personal income tax payable for 2013 is 12,436 euros, the solidarity mutual aid tax is 653 euros, and the religious tax is 1,125 euros.

The final interest to be paid is: 0.5% X 12,400 Euros X 16 months = 992 Euros

Note: The interest calculation for the personal income tax return in 2013 begins on April 1, 2015, and the tax payment notice is deemed to have been announced on August 25, 2016, with a total of 16 full months in the middle. Additional taxes such as solidarity tax and religious tax do not generate interest.

PS: We suggest that for taxpayers who entrust tax offices to declare personal income tax, if they know that the tax return of the current year can return part of the tax, it is recommended that the tax accounter submit the personal income tax return in the last few days of the statutory deadline. It is very possible to get interest from the tax office. Germany’s bank interest is now only a few tenths of a percent, but the tax bureau’s interest rate is 6%, which is really rare.

The last one we combined with the punishments that most domestic e-commerce companies now evade and evade taxes on VAT reimbursement.

Tax evasion and tax evasion will directly lead to fines or serious cases of imprisonment for up to five years.

If effective surrender behavior is carried out (for cross-border e-commerce in China, effective surrender behavior mainly refers to complete reimbursement of all sales from “opening” to present):

The tax evasion <=25.000 euros can be exempted from the penalty imposed by tax evasion.

25.000 euros <tax evasion <100,000 euros, the fine will be 10% of the tax evasion

100.000 <tax evasion <1 million euros, the fine will be 15% of the tax evasion

Tax evasion > 1 million euros, the fine will be 20% of the tax evasion

That is to say, for VAT replenishment, in addition to the basic fine, there may be corresponding interest and other fines. Of course, if some accounts are registered for less than half a year, the tax accountant will strive for the best interests of the client and will probably not bring any penalties. Please consider your own situation.

Germany is a very sound legal society, and these are just some legal penalties. If everyone submits the declaration and pays the tax on time, the above fine will not appear.

All choices still depend on myself.