Community Tax Law

With the administrative reform in the municipalities, targets were set for more cost-efficiency and a more citizen-oriented approach. The “Neue Steuerungsmodell” (NSM) - New Public Management (NPM) model points the way ahead as it advocates output oriented management and decentralised resource responsibility, inter alia. The Interior Ministers’ Conference indicated the right direction to take: a partial resource consumption concept through the expansion of budget-based (single-entry) bookkeeping or a partial resource consumption concept by converting to double-entry budgeting and accounting. This makes traditional single-entry accounting a thing of the past. Previous experiences show that double-entry accounting is the better reform option and will gain acceptance across the board in the medium to long term.



The municipal budget regulations (communal budget ordinances) - Gemeindehaushaltsverordnungen (GemHVO) of the German federal states are for the most part the legal foundation for the municipal budgets. These may prescribe the use of double-entry accounting, which is what has already happened in diverse German federal states by means of new laws for “Neues Kommunales Haushalts- und Rechnungswesen” - a new local budgeting and accounting system.

The conversion from single-entry to double-entry budgeting and accounting has been an area of specialisation for SKS Steuerberatung for several years. Offering special know-how and a viable concept, SKS Steuerberatung can achieve the perfect conversion to double-entry budgeting and accounting for the employees in your communities.

Tax legislation for public-owned commercial operations features a vast number of case laws. Numerous court decisions in this area with an expert like SKS Steuerberatung at your side are not a curse, but a blessing.

The Landesgesetz zur Einführung der kommunalen Doppik (KomDoppikLG) - German federal state law for the introduction of double-entry commercial bookkeeping on the local level (introductory act for budget reform / law for local council finance reform) which entered into force on 16 March 2006 - has implications for special-purpose associations, especially for independently operated (municipal) enterprises or institutions (public utilities) that are managed pursuant to an Eigenbetriebsverordnung - a regulation for independently operated municipal enterprises or public utility companies.