"They are assessing a stash of some 6,000 data records from social media platforms that point to unpaid taxes on everything from earnings from views to advertising products. "We know that there is a lot of money circulating right now," Stephanie Thien, head of the state office for combating financial crime in North-Rhine Westphalia, told AFP. "And we also know that not all of it is being taxed properly.""
"According to the German Association for the Digital Economy, the amount of money that companies spend on influencer marketing rose from 223 million euros ($262 million) in 2019 to 477 million euros in 2022."
""There have been cases where people come to us and say, I've been doing this for two or three years, but I've never thought about taxes," Christian Gebert, head of the tax advisory firm Steuerberaten.de, told AFP. 'Serious crime' "Many influencers achieve success quickly, and at the start, they often lack proper tax arrangements", added Gebert, whose firm counts many creators among its clients. But there are others who seek to evade paying tax by under-declaring their earnings, or not making a declaration at all. A common trick is pretending to relocate overseas -- Dubai is a popular choice -- to avoid high tax rates at home, and then in reality spending most of the time in Germany."
A specialised unit in North-Rhine Westphalia is investigating influencer tax evasion using about 6,000 data records from social platforms that indicate unpaid taxes on earnings from views and advertising. Influencer marketing expenditure in Germany rose from €223 million in 2019 to €477 million in 2022, increasing the scale of taxable income. Some young creators fail to register or calculate taxes due to rapid success and lack of arrangements. Other influencers deliberately under-declare earnings or falsely claim residency abroad, commonly citing Dubai while actually spending most time in Germany. Authorities and tax advisors report pervasive untaxed income and are pursuing enforcement.
Read at The Local Germany
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]