Frankfurt After the delayed dispatch of annual tax certificates from Commerzbank, the financial supervisory authority Bafin is increasing the pressure on all financial institutions. She expects “that the institutes will issue the tax certificates immediately by June 30 of the following year at the latest,” the authority said on Tuesday. “Because only then can customers meet their own tax obligations within the statutory deadlines and take the data from the tax certificate into account in their income tax return.”
Consumers who prepare their income tax return without a tax advisor or an income tax assistance association usually have to submit their income tax return by June 31 of the following year. For 2021, the deadline was extended to October 31, 2022, for 2022 to September 30, 2023.
Consumers primarily need the annual tax statements from their banks in order to apply for a refund of excess capital gains tax on their income tax return. Financial institutions usually send out the tax certificates by the end of the first quarter. “In individual cases” this was not the case in the past, explained the Bafin. She is probably alluding to Commerzbank and her online subsidiary Comdirect.
Commerzbank problems alarm financial regulator
At Germany’s second largest private bank, the issuance of annual tax certificates was massively delayed last year due to IT problems, which led to angry customer reactions. In August 2022, according to financial circles, a four-digit number of customers were still waiting for their annual tax certificates for 2021.
A Commerzbank spokesman said on Tuesday that the backlog of annual tax certificates that had not yet been delivered would be processed by the end of 2022. “Only in individual cases are there still inquiries that reach us regularly over the course of the year and lead to follow-up work.”
Commerzbank justified the delays with technical problems caused by a system change. Originally, it wanted to outsource its securities processing to HSBC. This would also have passed the responsibility for issuing the complete tax overview for the securities accounts to HSBC.
In the summer of 2021, however, CEO Manfred Knof stopped the outsourcing due to numerous problems. The responsibility for these certificates thus shifted back to Commerzbank, which, however, was not sufficiently prepared for this.
According to insiders, the problems at Commerzbank called the financial supervisory authority onto the scene, which was therefore in close contact with the financial institution. Commerzbank explained that it basically does not comment on “which topics are discussed in our regular exchange with the banking supervisory authority”.
Bafin urges “care and professionalism”.
However, the statement by Bafin is not a special requirement for Commerzbank, but a so-called supervisory notification. In this way, the financial supervisory authority communicates market expectations to the entire industry.
Bafin used this instrument for the first time in autumn 2021. At that time, after a ruling by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), she asked the financial institutions to promptly reimburse their customers for unjustly charged bank fees.
The background is that the Bafin is not only responsible for controlling banks, insurers and financial markets, but also for collective consumer protection. Executive Director Thorsten Pötzsch is responsible for this topic in the Bafin Board of Directors.
A Bafin spokeswoman emphasized that banks in Germany are obliged under the Income Tax Act to issue tax certificates to their customers. The financial supervisory authority is not entitled to enforce this tax obligation.
“However, Bafin can intervene if institutions do not fulfill their obligations to their customers with the necessary care and do not issue tax certificates due to insufficient organizational precautions,” said the spokeswoman. The Bafin then works towards “that the institutes remedy the deficiencies in the business organization and provide their services with the necessary care and professionalism”.
More: Why Commerzbank has to pay its customer compensation