The unsuccessful outsourcing of securities processing means that many customers are still missing their annual tax certificate for 2021.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt From the point of view of an ombudsman for private banks, the IT problems of Commerzbank and its online brand Comdirect do not excuse delays in the preparation of annual tax statements.
This emerges from an arbitration award in favor of a Comdirect customer, which is available to the Handelsblatt. In it he also warns the institute against liability claims by its customers.
According to the decision of October 20, 2022, the Comdirect must “immediately prepare the annual tax certificate for this customer for the year 2021”. The ombudsman also points out that the deadline for the income tax return for everyone who Submit your tax return without a tax advisor or wage tax assistance association.
“The deadline for submission is imminent, so the bank is now obliged to react immediately. This is all the more true as the applicant expects a refund,” the arbitrator had urged.
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For months, the bank has justified its difficulties with technical problems caused by a system change. The institute argued to the arbitrator that manual troubleshooting was not possible.
No “exclusion of manual creation of the certificate”
From the point of view of the ombudsman, however, the bank’s system conversion is “not a convincing argument, since the conversion should have been designed in such a way that it was able to meet its obligations to issue the certificate in good time”. According to the arbitration award, the difficulties associated with technical changes cannot be borne by the customer, but are the sole responsibility of the bank.
If necessary, the institute would have to create a certificate by hand, the detailed tax data from which the data can be determined would be available to the institute. “For this reason, I see no exclusion of manual creation of the certificate,” is his verdict. “The bank cannot transfer the risk of an untimely system changeover to the customer, so liability claims are quite conceivable,” the arbitration award says.
The reference to a possible liability of Commerzbank with a view to the late tax certificates is possibly particularly spicy for the institute. Because the deadline for submitting the tax return has now expired without the customer concerned having received the certificate requested by the arbitrator, as the person concerned informed the Handelsblatt.
Arbitration is legally binding
He’s not the only one with this problem. The same goes for numerous customers of Commerzbank and Comdirect, to whom the bank has not yet issued the tax certificates required for refunds of overpaid capital gains taxes.
The bank began informing customers about two weeks ago about how they can apply for an extension of the deadline at the tax office. However, this does not always solve the problem. Because it is at the discretion of the responsible tax office whether it grants such an extension. At least one customer reported to the Handelsblatt that the tax authority had already rejected his application for an extension because Commerzbank was currently unable to give a specific date when it could make subsequent deliveries.
>>Read here: Commerzbank and Comdirect are still unable to keep up with tax certificates
Actually, the decision of the ombudsman is binding for the money house. “The arbitration award is binding for the bank if the amount in dispute between the bank and the customer does not exceed EUR 10,000,” the private banking association BdB confirmed to the Handelsblatt.
At the moment the problem is “enforcing the law”
The money house has not yet complied with the obligation. “I thought the difference was always between being right and being right. But apparently I was still missing the third component, ‘enforcing the law’,” writes the affected customer. “I don’t really know what to do anymore.”
Written inquiries will not be answered. The hotline doesn’t help either. “The first employee could understand me well up to the word “annual tax certificate”, after which his reception was so bad that he asked me to call again,” he reports. On the second call, he spoke to an employee who stated that she would contact the specialist department, but at the same time said that he would have to be patient. The bank has not received any arbitration ruling.
The arbitration award has also been known to the employees of the hotline since Wednesday. It didn’t help: “But the employee informed me that the Comdirect understood this differently and therefore refused to issue the certificate manually,” reports the reader.
When asked by the Handelsblatt, a spokesman said: “We are aware of the arbitration award. We are still working flat out on the preparation of the annual tax certificates – also in the case you mentioned.” He did not want to comment on further details.
The difficulties of Commerzbank have called the ECB banking supervisors to the scene
According to the bank, the reason for the massive delay is “necessary adjustments to our tax accounting system”. Until recently, Commerzbank’s software was not able to issue a consolidated statement of earnings for customers with multiple accounts and custody accounts.
However, banks have been obliged to do this for some time. Originally, however, Commerzbank wanted to outsource its securities processing to HSBC. Then the major British bank would have been responsible for the overall overview.
Because this outsourcing had failed last year, the responsibility for the overall certificate remained with Commerzbank – which was not set up for it. In the meantime, Commerzbank’s difficulties have also prompted the bank supervisors at the European Central Bank (ECB) to take action. According to Handelsblatt information, they are in close contact with the institute. Commerzbank and the ECB declined to comment.
More: This is how you can extend the 2021 income tax deadline.