Berlin’s shadow economy booming
Half of Berlin’s construction workers are working illegally. You know, no “papers”, no Abgaben (taxes and social insurance contributions), and this in a city with one of the highest unemployment rates in all of Germany. And in a city as broke as Berlin, off-the-books firms and workers dodging taxes and other social contributions like this, regardless of how high these payments are (and this is of course the real problem), certainly isn’t making matters any easier here.
Somebody has to do something about this, right? Right, it’s only been a problem for a few years (one example) - like sixteen or seventeen, ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall at least. No government ever really lowers taxes or Abgaben once they’ve been introduced, however, so the city of Berlin is taking a big plunge and is going to überwinde (overcome) its fear of technology and introduce chip cards next year.
Starting January 1, 2007, construction workers will have to carry a chip card that stores their tax and social security information and construction businesses will have to declare all cash transactions and working hours for every individual working on their sites (they only had to show a combined wage bill with the number of employees in the past).
Will this work? On paper, sure, but I’m sure that the counter-scams have already been worked out in detail by those who plan to keep dodging the law. Maybe the real solution is in lowering taxes and Abgaben after all? Nah.
Schwarz wirft immer Schatten.
PS: Thanks for the corporate tax link, Ritze.
Somebody has to do something about this, right? Right, it’s only been a problem for a few years (one example) - like sixteen or seventeen, ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall at least. No government ever really lowers taxes or Abgaben once they’ve been introduced, however, so the city of Berlin is taking a big plunge and is going to überwinde (overcome) its fear of technology and introduce chip cards next year.
Starting January 1, 2007, construction workers will have to carry a chip card that stores their tax and social security information and construction businesses will have to declare all cash transactions and working hours for every individual working on their sites (they only had to show a combined wage bill with the number of employees in the past).
Will this work? On paper, sure, but I’m sure that the counter-scams have already been worked out in detail by those who plan to keep dodging the law. Maybe the real solution is in lowering taxes and Abgaben after all? Nah.
Schwarz wirft immer Schatten.
Kommentare auf Deutsch? Logisch.
PS: Thanks for the corporate tax link, Ritze.
Yes, it is. Just every once in a while (say, once a year?) you could also write something positive or less smug about Germany and that could include the fact that corporate taxes are, for a change, going.... DOWN! (http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/02/business/tax.php). And then you can go on writing your, mostly, really quite funny and refreshing comments. (Comment this)
As if the lowering of corporate taxes is anything to celebrate. The fat cat shareholders get the cream while the working person is left with an endless stream of layoffs and cutbacks. (Comment this)