Report to the Federal Parliament : Exemption from Payment of the Withholding Tax on Professional Income - A Complex Scheme to Help Employers

general assembly on March 27, 2019

The rules relating to the exemption from payment of the withholding tax on professional income are applied to a growing number of policy areas and employers and their cost has increased from 2000 onwards. The Court of Audit notes that the objectives of the exemption scheme have not been clearly defined and that there is no assessment of their outcome. The Ministry of Finance has obviously developed a control methodology based on risk assessment, but some obstacles are impeding the effectiveness of its controls. In particular, the controls it carried out in 2018 did not focus on the highly expensive dispensation as regards team and night work as well as research and development. The Court provides twenty recommendations for more effective measures and a better monitoring of their implementation.