Voluntary disclosures and retrospective declarations resulting in exemption from penalties

In recent years, the number of criminal tax investigation proceedings has increased considerably, not least on account of the acquisition by tax authorities of the corresponding internal datasets from financial institutions, but also from rogue employees within these institutions having access to tax-sensitive material. Regardless of the value of the evaded taxes, tax evasion is no trivial offence. Tax investigations and the fine and criminal tax authority departments adopt an appropriately relentless approach in tackling the suspected tax-related offences, whereby investigatory proceedings are nowadays opened much more quickly.

In such cases, PETERSEN HARDRAHT PRUGGMAYER offers rapid and professional advice, in particular with the drafting of voluntary disclosures resulting in exemption from penalties. In this area in particular, a high level of expert knowledge and experience is required. In each case a separate legal and tax appraisal is carried out. Here the consultants at PETERSEN HARDRAHT PRUGGMAYER draw on expertise in the areas of income, sales, inheritance and gift tax law and in the fields of company law and commercial law. During the criminal appraisal we work closely alongside experienced criminal defence lawyers.

Interdisciplinary support is also vital in the case of the retrospective declaration, since the German fiscal code sets very high demands in these cases: the retrospective declaration must be complete and must be submitted on time. Furthermore, all annual financial statements, balance sheets and tax returns must also be checked, and may need to be amended or supplemented. Here we effectively reinforce our expertise by means of the professional consultation of our sister company PETERSEN HARDRAHT PRUGGMAYER Steuerberatungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG.