@AW1- poor XY or poor XX? 20:24 Jul 16, 2009
Was the XY at the end a typo? I could understand poor XX :-)
Why is it unfair to XY if he did not pay his taxes? If he owes taxes, he has received the money from XX. I was just adding more on "Schwarzarbeit" when I had another brain flash. VAT is making more and more sense, because for invoicing the application of VAT is subject to where services and/or goods were delivered. So for European clients our invoices do not contain VAT, if we provide services e.g. in Vienna. However, if we have a contract wiht a foreign bank and provide services for their German subsidiary, the invoice must contain VAT. The bottom line would still be the same in a legal sense, if VAT is applicable then both parties of the transaction need to make sure that this VAT somehow ends up with the tax authorities. Or another scenario: German company XX paid and foreign company XY possibly even including VAT (to a foreign account) and XY just kept the VAT as a bonus on top... If I remember correctly, that was how my old company initially tried to increase the revenue and then got problems with the tax authorities, but that was aeons ago - before the new legislation was passed.
Sabine - any input? | 
The translation workplace 
