I have lived in Germany for one year, where I moved from Italy. I was registered there as a worker at a company in Switzerland.
Was there no local payroll agent in Germany for the Swiss employer?
drphantom said:
Now, the German tax authorities want 25,000 euros from me because the ones in Switzerland have gone bankrupt.
Is that for the whole year? Did your employer not withhold the taxes and send to German taxman?
drphantom said:
Can they do that?
If you earned money while living in Germany and not paid tax on it then they can ask for the tax you owe. I have not looked at the DTA between Germany and Switzerland however to confirm this.
I don't get what bankruptcy has to do with anything. Were you being paid monthly or yearly to run up 25,000 in unpaid taxes?
yes an accounting firm did all this. But the company has never had to pay the taxes, i.e. german tax office didn't ask for it.
So the local German accounting firm never withheld any income tax at source when they were payrolling you each month? Then they also have never paid any of your income taxes to German tax offices then. In that case you have to pay the taxes owed and should have been putting money aside to do this from your income. Just like you do in Switzerland when you have a Swiss C permit or passport and have to pay tax at end of year rather than each month you set money aside or use your "13 month salary" to pay it off most times. I don't think tax offices ask in general. You have to know how much tax to pay and when by, otherwise you get in trouble with tax offices in most countries.
In any case I would speak to your German accounting firm who does your payroll ask what has gone wrong. They should have taken care of all of this or at least informed you what to do - thats the job of someone handling your local payroll.
