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No Income Adjustment for a GmbH Due to Unclear Source of Funds of Its Sole Shareholder

23.08.2022

(updated on

07.04.2026

)

0

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In a recent judgment the tax court of Münster held that unexplained increases in assets on the part of a shareholder of a corporation do not in themselves permit the conclusion that the corporation has generated unrecorded operating income.The judgment concerned cash flow calculations carried out by the tax office in the course of a tax audit, based on an analysis of the private bank accounts of the shareholder of a corporation and his wife. In the case of the claimant, the corporation, the tax audit had previously revealed that the sole shareholder had made cash deposits into the cash register and that there were deficiencies in the way in which the cash register was kept.The decision was based on the fact that it was possible that the sole shareholder had obtained the income not on behalf of the company but privately in the course of his own transactions.The tax court of Münster nevertheless granted the tax office the power to estimate additional income on account of the defective keeping of the cash register. However, it limited the adjustments to a safety margin of 1.5 percent of the total sales generated by the GmbH. The results of the cash flow calculations were not to be included in the calculation of the adjustments.The senate allowed an appeal to the Federal Fiscal Court.

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