Background
The reporting obligations applicable to private individuals and companies under the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance are often unknown, although they frequently apply to foreign relations. Failure to report can result in fines.
The question of a reporting obligation in accordance with the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance should always be asked if private individuals or companies
- Make payments abroad or receive payments from abroad,
- have certain foreign receivables or liabilities or
- cross-border shareholdings.
These reporting obligations serve exclusively to compile foreign trade statistics. The individual details to be reported to the Deutsche Bundesbank are subject to confidentiality; in particular, they may not be passed on to other bodies such as tax offices.
An exception to the reporting obligations applies to private individuals who pay the usual travel expenses on the spot when travelling abroad or obtain the means of payment via banks.
Incoming and outgoing payments
There is an initial reporting obligation for payments received from abroad or made abroad. Anyone who accepts payments of more than € 12,500 from foreigners or for their account from residents or makes payments to foreigners or for their account to residents is obliged to register.
Please note the following:
- Nationals are not only persons with their place of residence or domicile in the Federal Republic of Germany, but also persons who have their habitual residence here.
- In addition to different means of payment, payments also include offsetting and netting.
- There is no reporting obligation for export proceeds, payments for imports of goods and disbursements as well as repayments of loans and deposits with an originally agreed term of up to twelve months.
Receivables and liabilities
Domestic non-banks are required to report receivables from and liabilities to foreigners if the sum of the receivables or the sum of the liabilities exceeds € 5 million at the end of a month. If the total exceeds € 500 million, the receivables and liabilities to foreigners from derivative financial instruments must be reported on a quarterly basis. This reporting obligation does not apply to private individuals.
Cross-border shareholdings
Domestic companies and private individuals are obliged to report cross-border investments in companies with a shareholding in the capital or voting rights of 10% or more if the investment object exceeds a balance sheet total of €3 million.
Retention obligation and offences
The registration documents should be kept for at least three years in order to be able to prove compliance with the registration obligations. Violations are administrative offences that can be punished with a fine of up to €30,000. In the case of undetected violations, a voluntary disclosure can be useful, as the prosecution of the administrative offence will then not take place under certain conditions.