Frankfurt Banking secrecy is one of the most important elements in protecting privacy. But some authorities – above all the tax offices – are allowed to overturn it. And they do that more and more often. The wage tax aid Bavaria (Lohi) points out that the number of account queries has increased 24-fold since 2010.
In 2022, officials snooped around 1.42 million times in citizens’ finances. In every fifth case, the data was delivered to the tax office. “An account query is allowed when it comes to checking information in the tax return with the aim of clarifying a tax crime,” explains Lohi.
If it does not hinder the investigation, the taxpayer must be informed afterwards about the data retrieval, Lohi explains. In other cases, however, citizens are unaware of where tax officials are investigating to track down tax evaders. The Handelsblatt explains the sophisticated system.
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