The criminal tax proceedings, in particular for tax evasion, take place in the ordinary courts. Therefore, all customary rights of refusal of information apply here, to which the persons concerned can also refer, for example, to crimes such as personal injury or forgery of documents. Insofar as a right of refusal of access or certificate applies, participants do not have to provide any information about the respective facts.

The defendant’s “right of refusal” is correctly referred to as the “right of refusal”. Because the accused himself may refuse any testimony, whereas this is the case with witnesses only in certain case constellations and usually only partially, i.e. with regard to legally clear certain information.

According to § 136 (1) sentence 1 StPO or § 55 OWiG, the accused person must already be informed before the start of the first examination that he is free to comment on the offence accused. At the same time, interrogators must make statements about the specific allegation and inform the accused that he is authorized to consult a lawyer. If the public prosecutor conducts an examination himself, he must also set out the respective norms on which the accusation is based.

If the law enforcement authority – usually the tax office in the case of tax evasion – violates its obligations, this can result in a prohibition on the use of evidence. Even a confession of the accused would be worthless in these cases.

The same applies to certain confiscation prohibitions, for example pursuant to § 97 StPO, to which we have already dedicated our own contribution.

In addition to the accused person(s) themselves, other persons have a right of refusal of information. If these are witnesses, there is also talk of a right of refusal to testify. In particular, the following categories of persons are protected: