Overview

• Sachsen-Anhalt’s Finanzamt confirmed that its tax supervisors and fraud investigators are analyzing multiple platforms after detecting anomalies suggesting undeclared income.
• Hamburg’s tax office has distributed a specialized auditor’s reference guide to all federal states and aims to complete audits of about 140 influencers by the end of Q1 2026.
• The Landesamt zur Bekämpfung der Finanzkriminalität in NRW is reviewing around 6,000 social-media records and has uncovered an estimated €300 million shortfall.
• NRW’s financial-crime unit currently maintains about 200 open criminal proceedings against influencers for alleged high five-figure to multi-million euro tax gaps.
• States are sharing audit tools and methodologies to tackle the sector’s opaque digital revenue models.