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Dangerous Inheritance From Liechtenstein
From Susanne Amann
The father has evaded taxes, the son inherits the debt: Thomas P. knew nothing of the millions of accounts in Liechtenstein - the tax until he wrote a letter. On the money he is not up until now, he still had nachzahlen.
Hamburg - It was a surprise of a very special kind, Thomas P. with a harmless looking letter fluttered into the house. The engineer had recently inherited - and assumed that after the death of his father a house in the Rhineland and had more money. Not much, but also no million.
In any case, far too little to the bill to pay the tax which he had sent. Friendly in tone, but hard in the case called him the tax experts to make a payment amounting to several million euros, which the father had not paid.
namely, a successful fashion retailers, was a customer of the infamous Trustee Herbert Batliner. This managed several thousand foundations in Liechtenstein - by the end of the nineties after revelations of hundreds Newspaper German investors with their black money accounts, records a CD-Rom aufflogen the State Prosecutor Bochum zugespielt was anonymous. Including the data by Max P. - the father.
"My father has always denied that he was a foundation and accounts had," says Thomas P. - for years a tense relationship with his father. Due age, that - in contrast to other Batliner customers - from the prosecutor not in custody. "When my father died, I had no idea that the allegations in the Steuerfahnder something - until the payment request came."
What accounts and how much money - no information
Because despite all the protestations ordered the father of a family foundation in Liechtenstein, with several million euros - so much the son has been using the account information to him to the tax operations, herausgekriegt. For further enquiries but he quickly boundaries: His experiments with the asset managers and banks in Liechtenstein to talk to, were unsuccessful.
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Graphic: How foundations in Liechtenstein
"Since meetings have taken place, but they were useless," says Lothar Pues, tax consultant and lawyer Thomas P. "With reference to the bank secrecy and the high professional standards, the asset managers refused any information." What accounts and how much money in the Foundation are created - no information. Who will benefit from the money - no information.
"Meanwhile, my client knows that the beneficiaries of the foundation business friends and their children," said Pues. Thomas P. That is not to the beneficiaries, astonished himself not - because the relationship with the father was torn apart since the son of his own career path. And not the wish of his father followed, also to Kaufmann. "The fact that I did on the one hand, the tax liabilities of my father's heritage, but no way have the money to the Foundation heranzukommen, which is absurd," says Thomas P.
It is his case is not unusual. Indeed, it is often the case that people from very different reasons discreet make transfers from the world learn nothing. "This applies, for example, donations to non-marital children or benefits of an entrepreneur with whom he / she is in close companions grateful and would like to show evidence. A motif may also be a gift to the lover," puts it in a recent essay " Journal of property inheritance and succession ".
"The tax sin of the father is to blame the son"
It is the anonymity that ensures that the foundations in Liechtenstein also for tax evasion can be used. And it is precisely this anonymity is Thomas P. so difficult, to get clarity. "The fact that these also be used, unloved family members to their entitlement to a mandatory part of heirs to bring, but for the moment they have not yet discussed, criticized tax advisors Pues. "Because the foundations for the heirs remained anonymous, remains a part of the heritage for the heirs virtually untraceable." This would not only the state but also betrayed the heritage.
Pues estimates that among the nearly 900 names included on the DVD of the Liechtenstein informants, at least 50 similar cases will be. "The foundations are being mostly from older customers, there are Erbfälle likely." an assessment, not all experts. The case of Thomas P. is a constellation that are technically feasible. "But it is not necessarily the norm," says Mark Pawlytta, Attorney at the Frankfurt law firm Shearman & Sterling. The promotion of the tax office he holds for right. It must first be paid, whether Thomas P. the money or not. "The tax sin of the father becomes the son of the debt, which is the normal succession mechanism," says Pawlytta. With the adoption of heritage over the liabilities - regardless of whether they are dependent on the tax or other creditors. "At this point, nothing will change, which is the normal risk - even if in some cases particularly tragic."
As a rule, a legacy has six weeks to decide whether it is the legacy compete or not. "This is not much, if you like in the case of Thomas P. no overview, what assets where they exist," said tax consultant Pues. Who until months later acknowledges that he is more debt as profits aufgehalst, can usually not much to change. Only in individual cases, it is possible adoption of an inheritance or to challenge successfully. "If you can credibly demonstrate that they impose an absolute mistake is what the severity or extent of the heritage, then you can in some cases the adoption of the estate to challenge and reject the legacy retroactively," says attorney Pawlytta. The only consolation for people like Thomas P.: Do not automatically a criminal conviction for tax evasion. The public prosecutor in a criminal must first prove that the heritage but of the assets in Liechtenstein decision knew, and the demands of the tax office knew and against its own declaration obligations has deliberately says Pawlytta. "Only then it is also criminal charges."
Liechtenstein is also reflected in individual cases than is generally cooperative. For instance, if the heir to the German part of his heritage less than the mandatory part of his success. "These so-called mandatory entitlements may supplement in each case before the courts Liechtenstein be invoked, although the prospects are rather low," says Pawlytta. In the case of Thomas P. Finally, a reassessment by the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Finance helped rather than the tax liability of several million euros in debt, only the top six.
From his heritage is not much left.
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