But what does the new reporting method bring? The Baden-Württemberg financial administration has now taken stock – or at least tried to. Because only the period from October 2021 to February 2022 could be considered for the statistics. In August and September, the “shitstorm effect” with insults, threats and nonsensical references such as smilies was too high to calculate a recovery rate, the Ministry of Finance explained on request. Only then was the platform used relatively “normally”. 1178 clues were not included in the calculations.
Specifically, in the four months considered, 1,430 tips were received via the online portal, 15 of which were criminally relevant. So the prosecution rate was about one percent. For the other “analogue” routes, the rate was 6.7 percent in the same period. 311 tips were received, 21 of which were criminally relevant. Overall, the number of anonymous tips on possible tax fraud increased.
In Germany, it is estimated that around 50 billion euros in taxes are evaded every year. The portal represents an additional opportunity for the federal state to report tax offenses to the tax authorities. Otherwise, anonymous tips can only be communicated in person, by letter, email or telephone.
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Minister Bayaz now draws a mixed balance after the first few months: “The whistleblower portal is obviously not a portal for denunciations. However, the quality of the information is not yet as high as hoped.”
Communication with reporting person
But just one correct tip among hundreds could bring in hundreds of thousands of euros in evaded taxes. The instrument of anonymous information is therefore fundamentally correct and important in the fight against tax fraud and for more tax justice. “It is therefore worthwhile both offline and online,” explained Bayaz.
In 219 cases, anonymous and encrypted communication with the reporting person took place via the whistleblower portal. The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Finance sees this as confirmation that the new reporting method has advantages over the “analogue” information that does not allow for queries.
The FDP and Union continued to be skeptical after the balance sheet from Baden-Württemberg. Markus Herbrand, financial policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, explained that there will certainly also be incidents in which tax evasion using the portal will be noticed. He thinks that references to special cases such as Cum-Ex or Wirecard make sense, “but blacking out the neighbors because the tax office is presumably not looking closely enough, I think is a state-sponsored division of society with an announcement”.
The CDU financial politician Antje Tillmann was convinced that such a portal would not have been necessary: ”Taxpayers could contact their tax office at any time beforehand.” The quality of the ads had also fallen with the easier submission of anonymous information in electronic form. Nevertheless, tax investigators would also have to follow up hopeless clues. “Your manpower is now missing in the clarification of tax crimes that have been received in the previous more promising way,” said the CDU politician.
Different plans in the countries
The head of the German tax union, Thomas Eigenthaler, drew a predominantly positive balance. “Of course, some ads are just rubbish,” Eigenthaler told Handelsblatt. But that is also the case with advertisements on paper. However, the experts at the tax office would know very well where to intervene and where not. “The separation of the chaff and the wheat is part of the day-to-day business in the tax office,” explained the union boss. “I assume that other federal states will soon adopt this digital offer.”
The situation in the countries has varied so far. Schleswig-Holstein is already examining the establishment of a comparable reporting platform. State Finance Minister Monika Heinold (Greens) described this as an “important concern”. When asked, the Bremen tax authorities stated that they would only want to check a year after the introduction in Baden-Württemberg whether the new procedure would be adopted with a view to more tax justice. An online portal should – as is the case in Baden-Württemberg – also allow anonymous queries as far as possible “in order to generate real added value”, said the Hanseatic city with the green finance minister.
North Rhine-Westphalia Finance Minister Lutz Lienenkamper (CDU), meanwhile, believes that advertisements or a portal “go too far and are not necessary”. The CDU-led ministry in Hesse explained that there are currently no considerations for introducing an anonymous whistleblower system for tax offices.
More: Federal Fiscal Court removes last doubts: Cum-Ex transactions were illegal