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In the scope of tax audits, the tax office is entitled to access all company‐
related electronic data and storage media that are relevant to taxes. For
example, fiscal officers in Germany and Austria are entitled to audit the
accounts of a tax payer created with the help of an IT system by accessing
the data. The auditors are not only entitled to view these documents and
records in the stored form, the tax payer must also cede the data carriers on
request and provide the required structural information (formatting details,
field definitions, file structure, links, etc.) to enable machine evaluation. This
also applies if the enterprise data are created and processed by external
accountants or datacentres. In Switzerland, tax auditors are not authorised
to access the data on the IT systems of the tax payer or a commissioned
external service provider in the course of the normal taxation process.
However, the tax payer must provide business documents in hard copy or
on electronic data carriers on request.
In Germany, a special requirement exists in that an application must be
made to keep and process books and other required records abroad. The
requirements for this are:
1.
The German tax payer informs the responsible fiscal authority of
the location of the data processing system and, if a third party is
commissioned, the name and address of the third party
2.
The tax payer has fulfilled certain obligations in line with the
fiscal code
3.
Access in full is available to the tax office
4.
The taxation situation is not affected by this.
The tax office must be notified of changes without delay.
If the tax office gains knowledge of circumstances impeding taxation, it will
revoke permission and require the immediate return of electronic books and
other required electronic records.
A word of caution: If the tax payer fails to comply with the request to return
its electronic accounts or the other duties mentioned earlier on, or if it has
outsourced its electronic accounts abroad without the permission of the
responsible tax authority, a penalty of 2,500 to 250,000 Euros can be
imposed.
In Austria, accounts can be kept abroad, except where the law prescribes
the contrary. However, if the tax office requests these books or records,
