The Frankfurt District Association of Workers' Welfare (AWO) will lose its non-profit status for the years 2014 to 2017.

This decision by the tax authorities was announced on Wednesday by AWO CEO Steffen Krollmann.

With reference to tax secrecy, Krollmann did not want to confirm that the resulting back payments of sales, trade and corporation tax amounted to a six-digit amount.

However, because this decision was foreseeable, provisions had been set up in the past few months and, due to the good economic situation, the payments could also "be made", said Krollmann.

Helmut Schwan

Head of the regional section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

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When asked, he said that the AWO would not contest the decision of the tax office, that they had worked closely with them. Ultimately, the reassessment for the period in question is essentially based on the arguments that the new management of the district association under his leadership also put forward in the legal dispute with the previous body around Jürgen Richter: The extremely high salaries that the former management approved Unjustified severance payments or the high number of expensive company cars in previous years just did not justify the status of charitable status.

For the years 2018 and possibly also for 2019, Krollmann expects a similar decision, for the following years he expects the AWO Frankfurt to be classified as non-profit again.

"After all, we have come to terms with the affair."

In his opinion, the current contracts with the city, for example for the care of children and old people, are not affected by the tax assessment.

Smaller projects that may be at risk will be continued from their own resources.

For donations, according to the AWO, the certificates that have already been issued remain valid, but no further certificates may be issued for the time being.