Porsche repays €10 million after tax error
March 3, 2019
Volkswagen's Porsche unit on Sunday admitted it made mistakes in income tax declarations worth millions of euros.
The newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported that the company paid too little tax on salaries paid to its semi-retired employees between 2009 and 2017. It said the carmaker's head office was searched on two occasions and files were seized.
At the time, the Stuttgart-headquartered firm was dealing with the fallout of the Dieselgate scandal, which saw several German carmakers install software to cheat regulatory emissions tests.
Trips claimed in private jet
During the tax investigation, German authorities also flagged costs related to ex-Porsche CEO Matthias Müller's 60th birthday party, as well as privately motivated trips in the company jet and chauffeur services.
Bild said the expenses were deemed not to be business-related and were then taxed retrospectively.
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A spokesman for the luxury automaker admitted that the tax office in Stuttgart had launched an external audit in June 2017 and that the company's premises were searched by authorities a year later.
Outstanding amount paid
Porsche admitted that the company had made a miscalculation over several years. The missing tax has already been paid to German tax authorities, the spokesman said. Bild said the owed tax amounted to €10 million ($11.4 million).
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"All documents have been readily made available, and we fully cooperated with the investigating authorities," he added.
The outstanding taxes were processed, filed and paid in 2016 and 2017.
According to Bild, there are several outstanding issues, including claims for corporate events that the company has to prove were official business expenses.
mm/jm (DPA, Reuters)