Latest news with #ChristianLindner
Local Germany
23-06-2025
- Business
- Local Germany
How long do you need to keep receipts and invoices for in Germany?
To Germany's credit, the tax authorities in the country are generally given the powers and resources they need to tackle financial fraud, at least in comparison to some other countries. The German love of probity and paperwork can take its toll on law-abiding citizens, however, many of whom breathed a sign of relief when former Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) reduced the retention period for accounting documents and invoices in Germany from ten to eight years. Now, Lindner's bid to cut bureaucracy looks like being reversed by his successor, Lars Klingbeil of the centre-left SPD. What does this mean for companies, the self-employed, and landlords? If Klingbeil gets his way companies, the self-employed, and landlords will all be required to keep documents, invoices, and receipts for a period of ten years, starting from the end of the calendar year in which the document was created, or the last entry was made. READ ALSO: Five hard truths about starting out as a freelancer in Germany Ideally, this means the originals of the documents, not copies, although the rules do allow for digital storage provided strict requirements for authenticity, completeness, and traceability are met. The same individuals or organisations are also required by law to store annual financial statements, inventories, and tax returns for the same period of time. Advertisement Under German law, some business documents including commercial letters and contracts only need to be kept for six years. The tax office can legally request all these documents within the specified periods in order to audit companies and individuals and check tax returns. If you're unable to provide the documents when asked to do so, the tax office can disallow the entire expense deduction, leading to higher taxable profits and a higher tax bill. READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: The best apps to help you track your German taxes In cases of gross negligence or intent (such as the systematic destruction or falsification of documents), there's a risk of fines or criminal tax proceedings. What does this mean for private individuals? While there is no general legal obligation for private individuals to keep hold of their receipts and invoices, there's often a good reason to file them away somewhere anyway. As a general rule of thumb, warranties or guarantees tend to last for two years in Germany, so it's a good idea to keep receipts for at least this length of time as proof of purchase. Providing you have the appropriate invoices, you can also deduct 20 percent of the labour costs for household-related services from your tax bill (up to €4,000 for services including cleaning, gardening, and maintenance), and 20 percent for handyman services – such as repairs, renovations, or modernisation work in your home – up to a value of €1,200. Advertisement If you own and live in your home, you can also deduct 20 percent of the costs for energy-efficient renovations from your taxes (like insulation, new windows, new heating systems, or digital energy management), up to a value of €40,000 over three years. If you do claim, remember to keep all invoices and proof of payment for at least two years in case the tax office asks to see them. Private individuals should also hang on to the tax assessment notices they receive from the tax office for at least then years, in the event of subsequent inquiries or subsidy applications.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Germany's FDP meets for leadership shake-up after election defeat
Germany's Free Democratic Party (FDP) is set to meet on Friday to appoint its new leadership, months after its catastrophic result in February's parliamentary election. The current chairman, Christian Lindner, who served as Germany's finance minister in former chancellor Olaf Scholz's government, is stepping down after more than 11 years at the helm. His successor is likely to be the party's former parliamentary leader Christian Dürr. Dürr has proposed entrepreneur, Nicole Büttner, as the new secretary general. She has been an FDP member for 20 years but has not yet stood in the national political spotlight. The FDP's current deputy leader, Wolfgang Kubicki, is set to stand for re-election before the party's 600 delegates. Henning Höne, FDP leader in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and European lawmaker Svenja Hahn are running for the two other deputy positions. The FDP won just 4.3% of the vote in February's election, falling short of the 5% threshold typically required to enter the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament. The party previously failed to reach 5% in 2013, leaving it on the margins of politics until 2017, when Lindner led it back into the Bundestag. In 2021 it joined the government in a coalition with Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens.
Russia Today
25-02-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
German pro-business party leader retires after electoral defeat
Christian Lindner, the leader of Germany's pro-business Free Democratic Party, has announced that he is retiring from politics following a disastrous defeat in Sunday's Bundestag elections. Lindner served as finance minister in the 'traffic light' ruling coalition between his party, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats and the Greens, which collapsed last year after the FDP leader pulled his support from the government due to a dispute over the budget. 'The federal election brought a defeat for the FDP, but hopefully a new beginning for Germany. That was what I had fought for,' Lindner wrote on social media. 'Now I am retiring from active politics,' he added. As of 00:35 am local time on Monday, projections reported by the German media suggest that Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU) has received 28.5% of the votes, while the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is projected to receive 20.7%. The FDP is projected to receive just 4.4%, under the 5% threshold required for them to obtain seats in the legislature. Scholz conceded defeat in a speech on Sunday night. 'This is a bitter election result for the Social Democratic Party. It is also an electoral defeat,' he said in his first statement after preliminary results were released. The campaign was dominated by calls to crack down on illegal immigration and extremism in the wake of a string of terrorist attacks. The parties also spoke about the need to reimagine Germany's role in world affairs in response to US President Donald Trump's push to resolve the Ukraine conflict without the EU's approval.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Germany's Lindner retires as Free Democrats see collapse in support
Former German finance minister Christian Lindner has announced his retirement from politics after his Free Democratic Party (FDP) appeared to fail to reach the 5% threshold needed to enter the German parliament in Sunday's national election. "I am now retiring from active politics," Lindner wrote on X late on Sunday as his party dropped to around 4.6% in the latest projections. Lindner had earlier pledged to quit politics if the free-market party did not pass the 5% hurdle. The move marks a remarkable downfall for Lindner, who had led the FDP back to political relevance and entered a three-party coalition government in 2021 with Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats and the Greens. However, the uncomfortable marriage was marred by massive differences over budgetary policy, with Scholz eventually firing Lindner as finance minister in November. That prompted the FDP to withdraw from the coalition, amid allegations that the party had pre-empted the split on purpose, and led to elections being brought forward from September to February. Lindner sought to position himself as an ideal coalition partner for the centre-right CDU/CSU bloc led by Friedrich Merz, the comfortable winner of Sunday's election. The FDP's collapse in support will instead leave the party - and its leader - heading into the political wilderness.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
German ex-minister Lindner to quit politics if liberals fall short
The leader of Germany's free-market liberal Free Democrats (FDP), ex-finance minister Christian Lindner, said on Sunday that he will retire from politics if the party fails to make it into parliament. Initial election results showed Lindner's party suffering deep losses, and appeared on track to fall below the 5% threshold needed to take seats in the Bundestag, the lower house of German parliament. In the 2021 Bundestag election, the FDP won 11.5% of the vote. But the party's popularity suffered badly during their time as junior partner in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party coalition. The coalition broke apart after Scholz sacked Lindner in early November, after months of bitter disagreements over economic policy and budget matters.
