Saturday 27 August 2022
Islamabad (Urdu Point. DW Urdu. August 27, 2022) A woman in Germany is accused of failing to declare the income she earned through voluntary payments in public toilets over several years.
A 49-year-old woman went on trial in the German city of Cottbus on Thursday, accused of failing to pay nearly 1.2 million euros worth of taxes on income from toilets at places such as highway service stations and restaurants.
A plate is usually placed outside toilets in public places and places like restaurants. Toilet users voluntarily put some coins in this plate according to their purpose.
The woman is accused of concealing the income she received in the form of donations from such toilets on eight separate occasions between 2005 and 2008, while also running a toilet cleaning company.
When the case started, the woman did not speak about the tax evasion charges against her on the first day.
The cases date back 14 or more years
This case is complicated in many ways. Showing how much was paid is extremely difficult, as voluntary payments are not fixed. The daily income from toilets varies from place to place and can range from 30 to 500 euros per day, the judge said.
"You have to try to reach the conclusion that is most likely, and that is as close to reality as possible," prosecutor Elvira Klein told German news agency DPA. '
The judge said the prosecution's 1.2 million euro tax figure appeared high, and countered with an estimate of 6 million euro.
On the other hand, it also complicates the case that after the investigation, it took almost 15 years to bring the case to the court, due to which additional responsibility falls on the prosecutor.
Tax laws in Germany have a statute of limitations for cases older than 10 years. Only 'serious cases' of tax evasion, i.e. those involving at least €50,000 in tax evasion, do not apply the 10-year statute of limitations.
According to prosecutors, they can identify a total of eight examples that are still eligible.
On the other hand, the first witness on Thursday tried to argue that the person who should really face charges is no longer alive.
The mother of the accused is the first witness, the blame is on her partner
The mother of the accused was the first witness.He maintained that although his daughter is the chief executive of the company, she has nothing to do with the revenue.
She said that her boyfriend managed the business, while her daughter was responsible for other matters, including managing the accounts. "My daughter did not want any money," he told the court.
The accused's counsel maintained that his client was not aware of the amount of income earned from the plates and was not aware of the 'real dimensions' of the business.
Prosecutors, on the other hand, say the case is made more difficult by the fact that the company's records of payments cannot be found.
In Germany, tipping amounts are tax-exempt, but only if the tip is given to the employee. Voluntary tip and other such income if deposited in a company's account is required to be disclosed as income and is not exempt from tax.
Apart from these aspects, the court also faces another difficulty in this case and that is the issue of jurisdiction. The company used to clean 78 different toilets, four of which are not in Germany but in Austria. Therefore, there is a question as to whether German laws can be applied to the income derived from these places.
The trial is currently scheduled for six days and during that time 28 witnesses are expected to be called, including from the Cottbus tax office.
(AFP, dpa)
