Roswitha Prowatke

Her work focuses on criminal tax law and tax advisers' professional law, e.g. :

• Defence in criminal tax proceedings,
• Criminal tax law and commercial criminal tax law counselling, e.g. regarding voluntary self-disclosure,
• Execution of appeals and lawsuits against the financial authorities both in court and out of court
• Preparation of special tax law reports
• Fee and compensation matters in connection with tax advice (professional law regarding tax advisers, tax adviser liability and the law on fees)

• Undeclared income from foreign capital assets (e.g. from Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria); use of foreign foundations
• Estate / inheritance containing undeclared funds - Legalisation of foreign capital assets / transfer of undeclared assets
• Entrepreneurial investment of undeclared funds abroad: Tax fraud, embezzlement, fraud, corruption
• (Involuntary) "participant" in an international missing trade fraud (mobile phones, motor vehicles, emission allowances etc.); refusal of tax exemption in the case of intra-community deliveries or export deliveries or refusal of input tax deduction
• Defence against writs of attachment and against insolvency applications by the tax office at the competent fiscal court
• Asset protection
• Reclassification of unexplained cash receipts in accounts (deposits) or capital gains as business income in the framework of a company audit , e.g. on the basis of a capital gains verification or a monetary transaction verification, an intra-company or inter-company comparative analysis using reference rates or other verification methods
• Generation of business income without proper accounting or proper cash accounting; dismissal of accounting or of cash accounting
• Undeclared income from foreign capital assets (e.g. from Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria); use of foreign foundations
• Undeclared business income
• Employing sub-contractors using fictitious invoices
• Estimates on grounds of non-submission of tax returns and initiation of enforcement measures by the tax office
• Evasion of income tax and social insurance contributions in the framework of labour leasing and/or use of sub-contractors (especially in the construction industry)
• Unusual features found in the framework of audits (analysis of control report)
• Offences of delayed filing for insolvency

• Immediate measures upon search and seizure by the tax investigation authority
• Tax advisers' joint liability under criminal law in the case of companies in crisis.
• Opportunities and risks of a voluntary self-disclosure pursuant to art. 371 AO [German Tax Code]
• Defence against arbitrary assessments in company audit and criminal tax proceedings
• Introduction of the European Directive on Interest - the beginning of a witch-hunt?
• Possibility of control for the tax offices through account inquiries
• Pensioners targeted by the tax investigation authority - Who should be afraid?
• Defence against seizures and freezing of assets by the tax investigation authorities (attachment for tax debts)
• Loss deduction according to sect. 10d EStG - Design possibilities
• Sales tax issues in connection with managing director's compensation
• Tax advisers' liability under civil and criminal law
• Tax advisers and their firms (liability, fee claims, rights of retention regarding documents, conduct in case of searches)
• Targeted by the tax investigators

• "Amendment of the German regulation on tax advisers' fees - current status", BB 17/2012, VII
• BGH: On the effectiveness of voluntary self-disclosures in the event of "minor" incompleteness, DStR 2012, 640 (together with Kelterborn)
• Annotation on the ruling by the German Federal Financial Court of 13/1/2011, VI R 61/09: "Income tax information provided to the employer by his tax office upon his request is not binding for the tax office competent at the employee's residence", BB 2011, 1317 (with Felten)
• The "new" voluntary self-disclosure, DStR 2011, 899 (with Felten)
• "By granting permission to enter the taxable persons foregoes an isolated legal protection option", BB 2010, 2154
• "Risk of criminal liability for managing directors of limited liability companies", GmbH-Beratung kompakt, April 2008 issue
• "The tax investigation search", BKK 2009, 749

• "Managing directors: Culpability on grounds of embezzlement by setting up undeclared funds abroad" GmbH-StB 2010, 321
• "The new Limited Liability Law", Bundesanzeiger Verlag, 2009
• "Slides for initial consultations", Gabler-Verlag, 2007

• Statute of limitation for claims to damages against tax advisers
• Statute of limitation for claims to fees against tax advisers
• Right of retention by the tax adviser:
• Tax adviser's obligation to surrender DATEV data