Reports have to be submitted no later than one year after the end of the fiscal year for which the country-by-country report is being generated, starting with fiscal years that begin after 31 December 2015.

Exception: Incomplete reports pursuant to Section 138a (4) AO shall be sent for the first time for fiscal years that start after 31 December 2016 (see Section 31 EGAO).

Yes, if you notice that there is inaccurate or incomplete information in the transmitted country-by-country report.
A correction of the incorrect country-by-country report can be achieved in two different ways:

1. Possibility:
   A deletion will be filed. Subsequently, a new initial delivery takes place (a total of 2 deliveries)
2. Possibility:
   A corrective delivery will be transmitted (1 delivery).

The correction messages must be accordingly identified as such.

In chapter VII of the User Guide for the CbCR XML Schema version 2.0 you will find instructions on the topic of corrections. The User Guide is available under the topic Regulations.

Country-by-country reports must be submitted by a domestic group parent with headquarters or management in the territory of the country. This domestic group parent must include at least one foreign company or one foreign permanent establishment.

A group parent is a company that, as top management, holds shares in other companies (subsidiaries) and that can exercise this economic influence without this company losing its legal independence.

Country by country reports must be submitted only be companies that are domestic group parents and include at least one foreign business or one foreign permanent establishment. In addition, they must have generated consolidated sales of at least EUR 750 million in the preceding fiscal year.

Exceptions: The business is a reporting company pursuant to Section 138a (3) AO or the company is instructed to submit as defined in Section 138a (4) AO.

The submission requirement for the German multinational enterprise is derived from Section 138a AO. Exchange is carried out with EU countries on the basis of the EU Mutual Assistance Law and on the basis of the EU Mutual Assistance Directive of 25 May 2016. Country-by-country reports are exchanged with third countries based on the multilateral agreement signed on 27 January 2016 (CbC MCAA).

If BZSt has not received a country-by-country report on a foreign group parent from the foreign tax authority, then each covered domestic group parent is required to send a country-by-country report for this group.

If a country-by-country report is sent to BZSt by one of these domestic group companies, then this requirement is waived for all other group companies included in the report.

The country-by-country report must be provided as an officially mandated data record that complies with the XML Schema. It is based on the OECD template for country-by-country reports.

The OECD provides a user guide for the XML Schema on its website. It contains both content-based and technical guidelines on preparing the country-by-country report.

No, the country-by-country report must be sent in XML format as an officially mandated data record.

Registration via the BZStOnline portal (BOP) is required for the transmission of data to the BZSt via the ELMA mass data interface. Most of the affected businesses in Germany already have this registration due to other electronic reports.

The XML Schema should be sent preferably in English. Please note that the information or details contained in table 3 must be sent in English. This is based on Article 2b of the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2378 (incorporated by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1963 of 9 November 2016 (ABl. EU L 303/4)).

After the country-by-country report has been transmitted electronically to the BZSt in accordance with the officially prescribed data set, a two-stage check is carried out.
First, the ELMA entrance test is carried out. If this is successful, the file will be forwarded to the technical procedure.
The file is then checked at the second stage in the CbCR technical procedure.
A response will be generated to you at both levels. These two responses are provided in the download directory on the ELMA server.
Only if a successful audit is confirmed by the second status report, the country-by-country report is considered successful and can be further processed by the BZSt.

NOTE:
When transmitting via the ELMA test server, there is no effective transmission of the country by country report. The test server is intended exclusively for the delivery of test data (no real data).
When the country-by-country report are transmitted via the test data server, only the ELMA entry check is carried out. The country by country report is not forwarded to the specialised procedure.
Ensure that both of the above responses are available in order to ensure timely transmission of the country-by-country report.
Further information on the test data can be found under the topic Manuals in the ELMA Communication Manual and under the topic of electronic data transmission in the section for the transmission of test data.

BZSt is obligated to store country-by-country reports for 15 years (see Section 138a (7) AO).

Yes, the OECD has published a glossary.

It is published under:

No, starting in 2017, the reporting company must be specified on the tax return forms. Therefore, BZSt does not need to be informed in advance about group company will submit the country-by-country report.

The OECD periodically publishes guidelines and information regarding interpretation issues on their website and in guidelines on implementation.

No, as part of representative authorization in accordance with Section 80 AO, the country-by-country report can also be sent by a representative. In this case, a power of attorney must be attached, providing the business’s data (name, address, tax number). If this information cannot be found in the power of attorney, this data must be listed separately.

In addition, the department must be informed of the type of power of attorney (transmission and/or disclosure power of attorney).
If the transmission is made via the ELMA mass data interface, the power of attorney must be submitted separately.

Yes, the reports are checked on a random basis. This is to ensure good data quality.

If a country-by-country report is not submitted, not submitted in full or not submitted on time, according to § 379 (2) no. 1 letter c) of the German Fiscal Code (AO), this may be an administrative tax offence.
Under § 379 (5) of the German Fiscal Code (AO), such breaches of the reporting obligation can be penalised with a penalty of up to EUR 10,000.
The responsibility for the fine proceedings lies with the competent state tax authority.

If you have any questions in such cases, please contact the competent local tax office.