Overview

• Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil proposes extending the retention period for business documents from eight to ten years to allow longer investigations into tax fraud.
• This plan reverses Christian Lindner’s reduction of retention periods from ten to eight years that had aimed to cut bureaucracy.
• Proposed legislation expected before the summer recess includes automated data-analysis tools to detect undeclared work and other financial crimes.
• Extended retention is intended to strengthen probes into Cum-Cum transactions and money-laundering schemes that have inflicted heavy losses.
• Klingbeil argues tougher measures are necessary for securing state revenues and improving the state’s ability to prosecute financial offenders.