In consultation with the tax authorities of the federal states, the Federal Ministry of Finance has revised and reissued the model form „USt 7 A“ for the „Order for a special VAT audit". This results in the following:
Under tax law, special audits are to be classified as regular external audits. A special VAT audit is therefore permitted for taxpayers who maintain a commercial or agricultural and forestry business or are self-employed. The tax audit regulations (BPO) are an administrative regulation for external audits by the state tax authorities and the Federal Office of Finance. For special external audits by the state tax authorities and the Federal Tax Office (e.g. external wage tax audits and special VAT audits), the provisions of the tax audit regulations apply mutatis mutandis.
The purpose of the special VAT audit is to ensure that taxable supplies are taxed correctly in terms of facts and timing, that tax exemptions and tax concessions are not unjustifiably claimed and that no input tax amounts are unjustifiably deducted or refunded. As a rule, the audit should be limited to certain circumstances. This can already be seen from the lists in the form for ordering a special VAT audit. The following taxation procedures are listed individually:
- One-Stop-Shop (OSS) EU regulation according to § 18j UStG
- One-Stop-Shop (OSS) Non-EU regulation § 18i UStG
- Import One-Stop-Shop (IOSS) according to § 18k UStG
According to the form for ordering a special VAT audit, the audit can also be limited to individual Areas be limited, for example to
- Taxable/tax-exempt sales
- Input tax deduction
- Sales at the reduced tax rate
- Amount of the assessment bases
- Turnover in special taxation procedures from other member states
More Reasons for a special VAT audit can be the following points:
- Input tax deduction, input tax adjustments
- Founding of new companies/acquisition of shell companies
- Utilization of tax exemptions for sales with/without input tax deduction
- Taxation of intra-Community acquisitions
- Entitlement to claim the reduced tax rate
- Timely taxation of sales (debit and actual taxation)
- Tax liability of the recipient of the service
- Legal entities, e.g. associations
With Start-ups a special VAT audit primarily examines which activity is involved, how long it has been carried out, to what extent input tax has been incurred from investments, whether purchases have been made that may result in an input tax adjustment and whether input tax must be apportioned. In cases of Company task For example, it is checked whether there is a (non-taxable) sale of the business as a whole, how the fixed assets were used, whether there were private withdrawals, for example, and when the business activity was discontinued.
Timely taxation with debit and actual taxation, flat-rate input tax, flat-rate taxation for farmers and foresters: In the case of actual taxation, it is important whether invoicing is correctly based on the consideration received, whether partial services are taxable, whether, in the case of debit taxation, taxation is linked to the time of turnover or whether tax is only paid at the time of receipt of payment, whether advance payments are correctly taxed, whether the correct tax rate has been applied and whether there are significant differences in input tax and output tax between the individual advance VAT returns and the annual return.
In the case of partnerships, the auditors focus on whether legal relationships exist between the partners and the company, how long individual partners have been involved in entrepreneurial activities and the scope of these activities.