Germany’s Federal Fiscal Court (BFH) ruled on Thursday that child benefits paid to Poles employed in Germany ought to be reduced by the amount of any benefits paid to them in their native country, Poland’s PAP news agency reported.
BFH, which is Germany’s highest financial court with jurisdiction to hear tax and customs cases, rejected an appeal by a Polish citizen, a father of two daughters, who had been posted by his Polish employer to work in Germany and lived permanently in that country, the PAP news agency reported.
While in Germany, the man collected both the Kindergeld children’s allowance from the German government and child benefits from the Polish government, a handout widely known as “500+,” PAP reported.
When German institutions learned about that, they subtracted the amount of the Polish benefits from the German payouts and demanded a refund of over EUR 2,000 for the period when both benefits were paid at the same time, the Polish news agency reported.
The Pole previously lost the case in several lower German courts before it reached the Federal Fiscal Court, according to PAP.
The Munich-based court finally judged that the Polish "500+" and the German "Kindergeld" were benefits of the same kind, the PAP news agency reported.
(gs/pk)
Source: PAP