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February 23, 2012
Man can keep €84,600 after tax office error
Published: 19 Jan 12 08:57 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20120119-40205.html
A man who kept quiet for eight years about a €84,600 overpayment from the German tax office has been told by a court he can keep the money.
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And because the tax authorities did not contact him to ask for the money back for eight years, a court ruled on Wednesday, it was too late and the man could keep the money.
The Federal Tax Court said the five-year limit on claims for restitution from the tax office applied in this case.
The civil servants who had failed to contact the man for such a long time after the overpayment could not do anything more to get the money back.
The man did not contact the tax office about the overpayment, but kept quiet – and can now spend the money.
The Local/hc
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Your comments about this article:
How much you want to bet that the law was supposed to stop claims against the state/tax office for errors they made years/decades ago?
But again, if some government entity made an oopsie and transfered a copious amount of cash to your accout, do not think you can just blow the money right away. I know somebody who is on Hartz IV and his ARGE agency once erroneously transferred not the usual monthly 500-something euros to his account, but exactly ten times that... over 5,000 euros... they simply must have gotten the decimals wrong... long story short, he managed to burn through about 1500 of the 5,000 euros before the ARGE notified him about two weeks later... and he didn't just have to give them back the remainder of the five grand, but they also reduced his monthly Hartz IV allowance by about 150 euros for the time being to make up for the 1500 euros that he had already spent.
the money lost to the lucky guy is just part of what we all paid before as taxes.
>the money lost to the lucky guy is just part of what we all paid before as taxes.
Fair point... on the other hand, 84,000 euros is less than a drop in the ocean compared to the ludicrous amounts of tax money that are wasted each and every year on all kinds of needless government expenses. If you care, the Bund der Steuerzahler (Taxpayers' Association) issues a report annually that lists the most gratuitous government projects and how much money went down the drain for them on the behalf of us taxpayers. It makes 84 grand seem like less than pocket change.
In my eyes he is a thief plain and simple. But I imagine in his own eyes. He probably justified his criminal behavior by pointing his finger toward to government and saying that they have done worse. We humans are experts at pointing out others worse behavior to justify or own.
@iseedaftpeople
As for it being a drop in the bucket.
It may sound corny or something from Confucius. But. The biggest avalanches are still made from individual snow flakes. The 'little stuff' adds up after a while.
It seems that the people who enact the laws must be super human to go through each and every wording, to see whether one makes another void, needs to imagine all possible ways their subjects interpret the law or use or misuse the law( is it really a misuse when the law never mentions using this way and that way is wrong).
We must respect out politicians a bit more than we usually do. I think if all these people were not vigilant and careful enough everyone of us will find some way around each and every law to get stuffs done.
wait till something like that actually happens to you. I'm sure not even half of you would return the money instantly. It would at least cross your minds how you could manage to legally keep it.
To all the 'Moral high ground' posters. And said as a pejorative. That says a lot. I would think that being honest should be the norm. And dishonesty as lacking morals. I guess I'm old school. And out of touch with dishonesty as the norm these days. And being honest as something strange.
I have had a smaller version of this happen to me. I bought a bunch of garden furniture. Paid via debit card. Got home and found that they had not charged me for an item that was worth $150.00. I went back to the store and paid them. Guess that makes me one of the abnormal folk.