Tax Deduction Obligation for Construction Services per to § 48 ff EStG, from January 1, 2002
Legislation passed to curb illegal employment, set forth in Sections 48 to 48 d, Para. 1 of the EStG, obliges all companies who provide construction services to submit a Certificate of Exemption of the responsible tax office to their customers, as otherwise all services will be subjected to a flat rate 15% withholding tax.
On the basis of the Certificate of Exemption, all services Provided by WAGO GmbH & Co. KG are exempt from this 15% withholding tax. We will immediately inform you if this Certificate of Exemption is revoked by the tax office in Minden.
Despite this, we are of the opinion that the services that we provide are, from a tax perspective, equivalent to material deliveries made by construction material wholesalers or construction markets, and therefore do not represent construction services as defined by the pertinent legislation (cf. letter from BMF, dated December 27, 2002, File No. IV IV A 5 – S 2272 – 1/02, text line 12), meaning that a tax deduction obligation should not exist.
For your records, we have prepared the Certificate of Exemption for download as a PDF file.
