Tax Compliance Management System — tax risk mitigation and reduction

The initiation of criminal tax proceedings by German tax offices, mostly as a result of simple unintentional errors, according to the motto "shoot first and ask questions later" is now common practice, which many a business manager has already had to experience first hand. The core question here regularly lies in the demarcation between simple error correction on the one hand and (actually undesirable) voluntary disclosure exempting from punishment on the other.

On May 23, 2016, the Federal Ministry of Finance issued a statement in the Application Decree of the Fiscal Code (Anwendungserlass der Abgabenordnung, AEAO) on Section 153 on the question of the demarcation between the declaration of correction pursuant to Section 153 AO and the voluntary disclosure pursuant to Section 371 AO. There, it is stated in para. 2.6: "If the taxpayer has set up an internal control system that serves to fulfill tax obligations, this may, if necessary, constitute an indication that may speak against the existence of intent or recklessness, but this does not exempt an examination of the individual case."