Disclosure and truthfulness obligations apply to de facto managing directors

If a de facto managing director and person responsible for tax matters within a company provides the tax advisor—who is acting without intent—with accounting documents that include false invoices, and if incorrect tax returns are submitted to the tax authorities based on those documents, the de facto managing director is not considered an instigator or accomplice, but rather the direct perpetrator.

The company’s legal duty of disclosure and truthfulness under tax law also applies to the de facto managing director and tax-responsible individual.

OGH 28.06.2023, 13 Os 119/22g