F. A. Z. Exclusive: gold finger model no evasion

Before the district court of Augsburg has been running since November 2019, a spectacular criminal process against accountants, the public Prosecutor, tax evasion, accused in the controversial gold finger model. But this is a charge that could dissolve in air, as the fiscal court of Baden-Württemberg has been around 160 kilometers away in Stuttgart, the Taxpayer's right. The tax judgment in the Goldfinger case with the reference number 5 K 3305/17 was spoken in Stuttgart on Tuesday, as the F. learned A. Z. from financial circles. The written grounds of judgment is still to come.

Mark Fehr

editor in the economy.

This is, in highly simplified terms, a design model for rich investors, which reduced the trade with the precious metal Gold abroad, their tax burden. Contentious less the model, but first and foremost, the question of whether the operation existed in Germany in this specific case, really, and whether income and expenditure were classified as commercial or for private causes is probably.

From the point of view of the lawyer, Richard Beyer, has observed, the tax legal proceedings in Stuttgart, is expected to have the judgment of the tax court a strong impact on the parallel in Augsburg ongoing criminal proceedings. Beyer was defending one of the two accountants, the Augsburg public prosecution office accused of tax evasion. "The clear decision of the tax court is not likely to encourage the court in Augsburg, in his view, to condemn the defendants," says Beyer, the F. A. Z. The indictment was legally not tenable. The tax court in Stuttgart had made it clear that the parties on the facts of the case were in agreement, originally scheduled to take evidence was therefore not necessary. In dispute, only the legal assessment had been.

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With a view to criminal proceedings in Augsburg Beyer criticised the public Prosecutor's office and the tax police: "The authorities have claimed that there is no for the design of the necessary facility in the United Kingdom, although they have determined on the spot." Their knowledge of the operation, the officials had concealed spaces, however.