Germany Publishes New CRS Infobrief

June 6, 2017

Tom Hospod

Author

Sovos

This blog was last updated on June 27, 2021

The German Tax Office has published a new Infobrief containing information relevant to this year’s CRS filing season. The Infobrief covers a variety of topics, including the following:

Opening of CRS production environment: Filers are now able to transmit CRS data as of June 1, 2017. The portal will be open for transmittals through the due date, July 31^st^. Filers will also be able to access the testing environment until July 7^th^. BZSt does not envision any deadline extensions for CRS this year.
Data processing protocols: The processing protocols from the CRS production system will only be made available at the end of the 23^rd^ calendar week.
Revision of the CRS Communication Manual: BZSt has made three revisions to the CRS manual – (1) Extended error codes in the ELMA input test; (2) Adjustments to the ELMAFEHLER_0001.xsd file of the CRS XML schema; and (3) Amendment to the “ControllingPerson” element.
Change to the audit profiles of the “ControllingPerson” Element: The adapted stricter test rule is now aligned with the professional guidelines of the OECD and the EU such that a “ControllingPerson” is only for allowed for “AccountHolderType” CRS101 (passive NFE with one or more controlling persons). Using “ControllingPerson” with CRS102 or CRS103 will result in a rejection.

Tom Hospod

Tom Hospod is a Regulatory Counsel at Sovos Compliance. Within Sovos' Regulatory Analysis function, Tom focuses om Affordable Care Act (ACA) reporting, Tax Withholding, and Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI). Prior to Sovos, Tom worked as a legislative aide in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Tom is a member of the Massachusetts Bar, earned his B.A. from Boston College and his J.D. from the University of Miami.

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