Tax offenses in legislation Federal Republic of Germany

Abstract

Establishing appropriate measures to protect the fiscal system at the level of EU Member States also includes the protection of the EU financial interests. That protection also means the prescription of tax offenses. These offenses are prescribed by national legislation of all States. Sometimes it is necessary to adjust their legal description with EU legal standards and to the practical requests. Tax misdemeanours are prescribed in all countries by tax law, but tax crimes in some countries are prescribed by primary and in some others by secondary criminal legislaton. In former Member States of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (excluding the Republic of Serbia) tax crimes are prescribed by primary criminal legislation, while Italian and German legislation contain specific solutions. In Italy tax crimes are prescribed by the Law on tax offenses, and in the Federal Republic of Germany by Fiscal Code. Bearing in mind that the German legislation had a major impact on the development of the criminal law of the Republic of Serbia, in this paper we analyse the provisions that prescribe tax offences in the Federal Republic of Germany. The objective of such analysis is to provide recommendations for possible improvement of the national legislation of the Republic of Serbia.

Keywords

• tax offenses
• misdemeanour
• criminal offenses
• the german legislation