$ 370 German Fiscal Code 
English Version 
Section 370 Tax evasion 
(1) A penalty of up to five years! imprisonment or a monetary fine shall be imposed on any person 
who 
1. furnishes the revenue authorities or other authorities with incorrect or incomplete particulars con- 
cerning matters of substantial significance for taxation, 
2. fails to inform the revenue authorities of facts of substantial significance for taxation when obliged 
to do so, or 
3. fails to use revenue stamps or revenue stamping machines when obliged to do so 
and as a result understates taxes or derives unwarranted tax advantages for himself or for another per- 
son. 
(2) Attempted perpetration shall be punishable. 
(3) In particularly serious cases, a penalty of between six months and ten years’ imprisonment shall be 
imposed. A case shall generally be deemed to be particularly serious where the perpetrator 
1. deliberately understates taxes on a large scale or derives unwarranted tax advantages, 
2. abuses his authority or position as a public official, 
3. solicits the assistance of a public official who abuses his authority or position, 
4. repeatedly understates taxes or derives unwarranted tax advantages by using falsified or forged 
documents, or 
5. as a member of a group formed for the purpose of repeatedly committing acts pursuant to subsection 
(1) above, understates value-added taxes or excise duties or derives unwarranted VAT or excise duty 
advantages. 
(4) Taxes shall be deemed to have been understated in particular where they are not assessed at all, in 
full or in time; this shall also apply even where the tax has been assessed provisionally or assessed 
subject to re-examination or where a self-assessed tax return is deemed to be equal to a tax assessment 
subject to re-examination. Tax advantages shall also include tax rebates; unwarranted tax advantages 
shall be deemed derived to the extent that these are wrongfully granted or retained. The conditions of 
the first and second sentences above shall also be fulfilled where the tax to which the act relates could 
have been reduced for other reasons or the tax advantage could have been claimed for other reasons. 
(5) The act may also be committed in relation to goods whose importation, exportation or transit is 
banned. 
(6) Subsections (1) to (5) above shall apply even where the act relates to import or export duties which 
are administered by another Member State of the European Communities or to which a Member State 
of the European Free Trade Association or a country associated therewith is entitled. The same shall 
apply where the act relates to value-added taxes or harmonised excise duties on goods designated in 
Article 3(1) of Council Directive 92/12/EEC of 25 February 1992 (OJ L 76, p. 1) which are adminis- 
tered by another Member State of the European Communities. 
(7) Irrespective of the lex loci delicti, the provisions of subsections (1) to (6) above shall also apply to 
acts committed outside the territory of application of this Code. 
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