Statutes

Statutes

Lohnsteuerberatungsverbund e. V. - Lohnsteuerhilfeverein-

§ 1 Name, domicile and field of activity

(1) The association bears the name "Lohnsteuerberatungsverbund e.V. -Lohnsteuerhilfeverein-".

(2) The Association has its registered office in 95652 Waldsassen and thus in the district of the Nuremberg Chief Finance Office. The management is also located in Waldsassen and thus in the same upper financial district.

(3) The working area of the association is the area of application of the Basic Law.

§ 2 Purpose of the Association

(1) The Association is a self-help organisation of employees. Its purpose is exclusively to provide assistance to its members in cases of income from employment, other income tax matters including child benefit matters in accordance with Section X of the Income Tax Act and in cases of home owner allowances as well as in the assessment proceedings referred to in Section 4 No. 11 Sentence 2 of the Tax Consultancy Act.

(2) The activities of the Association shall also include the representation of the member in appeal proceedings before tax authorities and tax courts.

(3) The association is not geared towards commercial business operations and is therefore an ideal association in the sense of §21 BGB.

§ 3 Members

Any employee in the working area of the Association who is entitled to be advised by the Association in accordance with the statutory provisions may become a member. Other persons may become members if their membership contributes to the realisation of the legally defined purpose of the association.

§ 4 Commencement of membership

(1) Membership must be declared in writing.

(2) Upon request, the statutes and the membership fee regulations shall be made known to all those wishing to join before submitting the declaration of membership and shall be handed out upon request after joining.

(3) The Executive Board may refuse membership. A possible refusal does not need to be justified. If the Executive Board does not object to the application for membership of a person wishing to join within three weeks, membership shall be deemed confirmed.

(4) By joining, the member acknowledges the statutes.

§ 5 Termination of Membership

(1) Membership shall be terminated by voluntary resignation, exclusion, deletion from the list of members or death.

(2) Resignation is only possible at the end of each fiscal year. In the event of an increase in membership fees, there is an extraordinary right of resignation. It must be declared in writing to the Executive Board with a notice period of three months before the end of the respective fiscal year, in the case of extraordinary resignation three months before the increased contribution (§7 Para.3 of the Statutes) applies.

(3) A member may be excluded from the Association by resolution of the Executive Board if there is good cause. Reasons for exclusion are in particular gross violations of the statutes and the interests of the association as well as resolutions and orders of the organs of the association. The member may lodge an objection against the exclusion within a period of four weeks after receipt. The next general meeting will then decide on the objection. The decision of the general meeting is final.

(4) A member can be deleted from the list of members by decision of the Executive Board if he/she is in arrears with the payment of membership fees despite two written reminders. The deletion may only be decided if at least two months have elapsed after the second reminder has been sent and the deletion has been threatened in this reminder.

(5) After termination of membership, all rights and obligations towards the association expire. This does not apply to any liability claims according to §15 of the statutes. At the same time, the former member is automatically relieved of all offices held within the association.

§ 6 Rights and duties of members

(1) Membership of the Association entitles the member to receive advice from the Association in accordance with the Association's statutes. The member is obliged to hand over to the association all documents required for the consultation and to provide information.

(2) Every member can participate in the general meeting with the right to vote. (3) The member is obligated to pay dues within the scope of §7 of the statutes. (4) A claim for distribution of the association's assets does not exist.

§ 7 Membership fee

(1) An annual membership fee and a one-time admission fee shall be charged.

(2) The admission fee as well as the first annual membership fee are to be paid upon joining the Association. Subsequent fees are to be paid by January 31st.

(3) The amount of the annual membership fee and the admission fee shall be regulated in a membership fee regulation, which shall be issued by the Executive Board. The amended or new membership fee regulations shall be announced to the members four months before the date from which they are to apply.

(4) In addition, no special fee shall be charged for assistance in income tax matters within the meaning of § 2 of the Articles of Association.

§ 8 Fiscal Year

The fiscal year is the calendar year.

§ 9 Organs of the Association

The organs of the association are the general meeting and the board of directors. Only members of the association can belong to an organ of the association.

§ 10 General Meeting

(1) The General Assembly is the supreme body of the Association. Each member has one vote in the meeting.

(2) The general meeting has to take place at least once a year. It shall be convened by the Executive Board. The meeting shall be convened in writing with a notice period of 14 days from the date of posting of the invitation at the post office, stating the agenda, the place of the meeting and the date. The invitation must be sent to each member individually. The supervisory authority shall be notified at the same time.

(3) The Executive Board shall hold a General Meeting within three months of announcing to the members the essential content of the audit findings of the business audit (Section 13 (1) of the Articles of Association), in which in particular a discussion shall be held on the results of the business audit and a decision shall be made on the discharge of the Executive Board on account of its management during the audited financial year.

(4) Upon request of at least 20% of all members, the Executive Board shall convene an extraordinary General Meeting within a period of 4 weeks.

(5) The agenda shall be set by the Board. Each member may request the addition of items to the agenda in writing to the Executive Board no later than one week before the General Meeting. The chairman of the meeting shall announce the addition at the beginning of the general meeting. The meeting decides on requests for additions to the agenda that are made at the general meeting.

(6) The General Meeting shall be chaired by the Chairperson. If no member of the board is present, the meeting shall determine the chairman of the meeting. The manner of voting shall be decided by the chairman of the meeting. Voting must be carried out in writing if 1/3 of the members present and entitled to vote demand this.

(7) The resolutions of the General Assembly shall be passed by a simple majority of the members present, notwithstanding the provisions of §33 BGB (amendment of the Articles of Association, amendment of the purpose of the Association). Every properly convened general meeting shall constitute a quorum.

(8) Minutes shall be kept of the resolutions of the General Meeting and shall be signed by the keeper of the minutes and the chairman of the meeting. A list of all participants in the general meeting shall be attached to the minutes.

(9) The General Meeting is exclusively responsible for the following matters:

• Election and dismissal of members of the Executive Board
• Acceptance of the annual report of the Executive Board
• Discussion of the results of the business audit
• Discharge of the board of directors
• Approval of contracts concluded by the Association with members of the Board or their close relatives
• Adoption of resolutions on the amendment of the Articles of Association and the dissolution of the Association.

§ 11 Executive Board

(1) The Executive Board within the meaning of §26 BGB consists of two members.

(2) The members of the board are authorised to represent the association individually.

(3) The board is elected by the general meeting for a period of five years.

The appointment of the members of the Executive Board can only be revoked for good cause in accordance with Section 27 (2) of the German Civil Code (BGB). However, they shall remain in office until a new Executive Board has been elected. Re-election is permissible.

(4) A spokesperson shall be appointed at the first joint meeting of the Executive Board. The Executive Board shall adopt its resolutions unanimously.

(5) Members of the Executive Board shall not receive any remuneration for their activities. Proven expenses and costs incurred by a member of the Board of Management in the performance of his duties may be reimbursed in an appropriate manner.

If a member of the board is employed by the association as managing director or head of an advisory office, the amount of remuneration to be paid shall be subject to the approval of the general meeting. The executive board is not exempt from the provisions of §181 BGB.

(6) §§664 to 670 BGB apply to the management of the executive board.

In particular, the Executive Board shall perform the following tasks:

• management and supervision of the current and extraordinary business of the association
• appointment of a managing director within the meaning of §30 BGB, insofar as the executive board does not manage the association's business itself
• Establishment and operation of advice centers and their supervision in the sense of §14 of the statutes
• Publication of the audit report and convening of the general meeting of members -execution of the resolutions of the general meeting
• fulfilment of the obligations resulting from the Tax Consultancy Act towards the supervisory authority

§ 12 Amendments to the Articles of Association

(1) The Articles of Association may only be amended at a General Meeting to which special notice of the intended amendment of the Articles of Association has been given. A majority of 3/4 of the members present is required to amend the statutes.

(2) The consent of all members is required to change the purpose of the Association. The consent of the non-appearing members must be given in writing.

§ 13 Obligations towards the supervisory authority

The Executive Board must fulfil the obligations for the Association to the supervisory authority arising from the Tax Consultancy Act. This concerns in particular the following:

(1) The Association shall have the completeness and correctness of the records and the statement of assets and liabilities, as well as the conformity of the actual management with the statutory tasks of the Lohnsteuerverein audited annually by one or more business auditors within six months of the end of the fiscal year.

(2) Only the following may be appointed as business auditors:

a) Persons and companies authorised to provide unrestricted assistance in tax matters,

b) auditing associations whose statutory purpose includes the regular or extraordinary auditing of members, if at least one legal representative of the association is a tax advisor, tax agent, lawyer, auditor or sworn auditor.

(3) Persons in respect of whom there is concern about bias or the possibility of a conflict of interests, in particular because they are members of the Board of Directors, special representatives or employees of the Association, may not be auditors. This also applies to persons who advise or support the association organisationally or economically, who look after members of the association or who have done all this during the audit period or who have assisted in keeping the books or preparing the documents to be audited.

(4) The Association shall forward a copy of the audit report to the competent higher tax authority within one month of receipt of the audit report, but no later than nine months after the end of the financial year, and shall notify the members in writing of the main content of the audit findings within six months of receipt of the audit report.

(5) The Association shall notify the competent supervisory authority of any amendment to the Articles of Association within one month of adopting the resolution. It must be informed of forthcoming general meetings at least two weeks in advance.

(6) The authorised representatives of the association must notify the competent supervisory authorities of the information required for entry or deletion in the register of income tax associations in accordance with §§7 DVLStHV and §30 StBerG within two weeks.

§ 14 Advice to members

(1) The provision of advice to members shall only be exercised in advice centers within the meaning of §23 StBerG.

(2) Assistance in income tax matters shall only be provided by persons who belong to an advisory center. All persons who are employed by the Association to provide assistance in income tax matters are required to comply with the duties specified in these Articles of Association. A manager shall be appointed for each advisory office; he/she may manage only one other advisory office at the same time. The head of the advisory office shall exercise professional supervision over the persons working in the advisory office.

(3) Only persons who meet the requirements of Section 23 (3) StBerG as amended from time to time may be appointed as head of an advisory office. Anyone who has behaved in such a way that there is reason to fear that he will not fulfil the duties of the Lohnsteuerhilfeverein may not be appointed as the head of an advice center.

(4) The assistance in wage tax matters shall be provided professionally, conscientiously, discreetly and in compliance with the provisions contained in the WerbeVOStBerG. The exercise of any other economic activity in connection with the provision of assistance in wage tax matters shall not be permissible.

(5) The files on the assistance in income tax matters of the members shall be kept for a period of seven years after the conclusion of the activity of the association in the income tax matter of the member. However, this obligation shall expire before the end of this period if the Association requests the member to receive the hand file and the member has not complied with this request within three months of receiving it. The provisions made in laws other than the Tax Consultancy Act concerning the obligation to retain business documents shall remain unaffected.

§ 15 Exclusion of liability, liability insurance

(1) In the case of assistance in wage tax matters for members, the liability of the association for the fault of its organs and employees cannot be excluded.

(2) For the liability risks arising from the assistance in wage tax matters (e.g. consulting errors, loss of processing documents), the association shall take out a property liability insurance in an appropriate amount. The competent authority within the meaning of Section 158c (2) of the Law on Insurance Contracts shall be the Chief Finance Office.

(3) A member's claim for damages arising from the legal relationship between him/her and the Association shall become statute-barred three years from the date on which the claim arose.

§ 16 Dissolution of the Association, Liquidation

(1) The dissolution of the Association can only be decided in a General Meeting convened separately for this purpose. This requires a 3/4 majority of the members present. However, the Association cannot be dissolved if at least seven of the members present object to the dissolution.

(2) Unless the General Assembly decides otherwise, the members of the Board shall be the liquidators. The power of representation in accordance with §11 Para.2 of the Articles of Association shall apply accordingly.

(3) At the request of the chairman, the appointment of a representative to handle pending wage tax matters in accordance with §24 StBerG and the storage of the hand files in accordance with §26 Para.4 StBerG must be decided before the vote on the dissolution of the Association and the use of the Association's assets.

(4) In the event of dissolution of the Association, the remaining assets shall be forfeited to a charitable institution after liquidation has been carried out. The beneficiary is to be decided separately in the general meeting.

§ 17 Jurisdiction

The place of jurisdiction is the registered office of the association. Place of fulfilment is in any case 95652 Waldsassen.

§ 18 English translation

All information was prepared as an English document for convenience purposes. The German text shall constitute the authentic version. In the event of any discrepancies between the German and the English text, the German text shall prevail.

§ 19 Final clause

Should parts of these statutes be or become invalid, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining parts of the statutes.