Scientific expertise incorporated into legislation
In addition to their work in teaching and research, academics at our university are also involved in other areas of society and pass on their expertise. Prof. Dr. Sebastian Eichfelder from the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics was recently invited as an expert to the Legal Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag. The holder of the Chair of Business Taxation contributed his professional assessment of the draft of the 4th Bureaucracy Relief Act to the meeting. He emphasized the importance of reducing companies' bureaucratic costs, but doubted that the planned reduction in the obligation to retain accounting documents would lead to any significant reduction in bureaucracy. Prof. Dr. Sebastian Eichfelder answered a few questions for us.
How did it come about that you were invited to the committee meeting as an expert?
I have been working in the field of estimating and analyzing the bureaucratic costs of companies in the area of taxes and accounting since my doctorate. In 2020, for example, I carried out a third-party funded project for the FPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, which involved estimating the bureaucratic costs of the temporary reduction in VAT during the coronavirus pandemic. However, the specific request probably also has something to do with the fact that my former doctoral student and research assistant Dr. Jonas Knaisch has been working as a tax expert for the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen parliamentary group in the Bundestag since May, from which the request came.
How would you summarize the Fourth Bureaucracy Reduction Act?
The 4th Bureaucracy Reduction Act provides for a wealth of measures that are intended to help reduce bureaucracy. The Act contains more than 60 articles on amendments to various laws - such as the Commercial Code, the Fiscal Code, etc. I focused my interventions in the committee meeting on one measure in particular. The bill provides for retention periods for commercial and tax documents to be reduced from 10 to 8 years. According to the draft bill, this should result in a reduction in bureaucratic costs of 625 million euros. This is around 2/3 of the total cost savings of 944 million euros envisaged in the draft. However, these considerable cost savings based purely on a reduction in retention periods appear absolutely unrealistic from a business perspective. I have spoken to a wide range of practitioners and also checked the plausibility of the underlying calculation model. As a result, it can be stated that the measure of reducing retention periods appears to make little sense and will do practically nothing to relieve companies in terms of bureaucratic costs. I pointed this out at the committee meeting and emphasized the need for further measures to reduce the bureaucratic burden on companies.
What is your personal motivation for getting involved in political consulting?
Ultimately, for me it is about making a positive contribution to social development in Germany and the common good. My research, as well as the research of many of my colleagues, leads to interesting and sometimes socially relevant findings. However, these will only have a positive impact on society if they are recognized by the public and politicians. Reducing bureaucracy seems to me to be an important issue overall - especially in times of a shortage of skilled workers. If I can contribute to this goal with my expertise, or even prevent measures that make little sense, then I am very pleased.
Thank you very much, Professor Eichfelder, for the interview.
The interview was conducted by Janina Markgraf.