Anyone who wants to report the neighbor or boss who is cheating the tax office can now do this particularly easily in Baden-Württemberg.

At the beginning of the week, the tax authorities introduced what it claims to be the “nationwide first anonymous whistleblower system”.

Manfred Schäfers

Business correspondent in Berlin.

  • Follow I follow

The Ministry in Stuttgart, headed by Danyal Bayaz (Greens), argues that anonymous reports are already possible today, by telephone, in writing, in person or with the help of an e-mail.

Often essential information was missing, but due to the anonymity, no further inquiries are possible.

The new whistleblower system allows you to communicate discreetly with the tax administration.

"There is also the option of an anonymous dialogue for queries and inquiries via a digital mailbox."

"Green tax pillory"

The new portal has met with a lot of criticism.

The Bild newspaper headlined on its first page on Wednesday: “Green Minister introduces Stasi tax”.

After turning the page, the reader comes across the heading: "Citizens should blacken their neighbors and acquaintances."

The FDP chairman Christian Lindner told the FAZ, "The digitization of the administration is necessary, but just starting with possible denunciation among neighbors is a mystery".

It would be better to digitize the 16 tax administrations in order to combat sales tax fraud in the carousel models.

"In the end, this is based on an image of man that is not shaped by trust, but by mistrust."

Union parliamentary group vice-chairman Thorsten Frei spoke of a "green tax pillory".

Every hardworking and tax-paying citizen comes under general suspicion.

"While the Greens have rightly despised the AfD for their teachers' pillory, they want to use this instrument elsewhere themselves," criticized the MP from the state.

Bayaz appeases

The responsible minister, Bayaz, defended his approach on Wednesday.

"Tax evasion is a slap in the face for those who pay their taxes honestly," he said.

Tax fraud in Germany is estimated to cause damage of 50 billion euros a year.

Money that is missing for good education, infrastructure and the police, because individuals enriched themselves at the expense of the general public.

The new anonymous information portal is a complementary tool in the fight for more tax justice.

As in other federal states, anonymous reports have already been possible, by letter or telephone, "this is also the case in other federal states".

The Green politician said it should also go online in 2021.

That is why the online system was created.

“Of course, reports must be well founded, otherwise they won't even be processed by the tax investigators.

A simple note is expressly not enough, ”emphasized the finance minister.

"Nobody has to fear that in future the tax investigators will see the door just because the neighbor has blackened him." It is about relevant cases of tax fraud.

"Sheer misconception"

Nevertheless, the Federal Chamber of Tax Advisors does not expect that many more tax fraudsters will be exposed. "To believe that such a portal leads to more tax justice is a sheer misconception," said its President Hartmut Schwab when asked. The financial administration already has many opportunities to obtain relevant data. “These just have to be used more efficiently and more quickly. The administration often lacks the staff for this - even a portal like this will not be able to change that, ”he said.

The tax advisor expressed concern that the administration is now inundated with a lot of unqualified reports.

“Separating the wheat from the chaff is likely to cost a lot of valuable time.” Time that is no longer available for evaluating qualified data such as tax returns, annual financial statements and tax audits.

According to Bayaz, tax investigators are legally obliged to investigate well-founded reports.

In Baden-Württemberg the investigators discovered about 250 million euros in additional taxes last year, nationwide it was 3.2 billion euros.

"There can be zero tolerance for tax evasion," he emphasized.

On its website, the ministry is promoting the new option to actively use it to transmit suspected cases.

"By reporting it on the reporting platform, you are helping the tax administration to uncover tax fraud." But the mere assertion that someone evaded taxes is not enough.

Reports submitted would have to be formulated in a coherent manner, contain true details and concrete information.



The reports are received by the Special Tax Inspectorate (SES), which distributes them to the responsible tax investigation office.

However, this will only be determined if enough details are provided that can be checked, it is said by way of explanation.

How many tax investigators worked on the cases will be decided individually.