Broker fraud or tax evasion?

So when we bought a house, there was nothing about the broker in the notary contract ... the broker was commissioned by the seller anyway, of course as a buyer you don’t even have the commission contract available

What he is doing there is extremely cheeky and unfortunately also drags the honest players in this business through the mud.

Maybe it also depends on regional customs? Of course the buyer usually chooses the notary. The broker clarifies this matter in advance and provides the notary with all necessary documents while at the same time securing his own interests. In our last contract, for example, it says:
"The contract was concluded through the proof or mediation by (...) . The contracting parties agree on this. The notary is authorized (...) to issue a simple copy of this contract."

Who says? Here in the region, no one has gone bankrupt. They are all extremely happy. Nov & Dec & Jan, receiving 75% of the previous year’s sales and shedding fixed costs (no personnel, no energy, no material use). I don’t need to calculate much to see that it works out.

If anyone goes insolvent, it's only because they don't file the applications correctly.

That doesn’t add up at all over the year – how could it? Except for those two months, there were only pennies. We know highly successful restaurateurs who aged years in 2020 from worry.

One certainly has to consider the individual case. Here, in summer and until the end of October, the restaurants and beer gardens were packed without end. Everyone who wanted to and could supported the gastronomy accordingly, and in general, people went out to eat more often than before Corona. When I looked at the preliminary VAT returns of the gastronomy, there was also no noticeable decline in sales during this period. If you go purely by the balance sheets and profit calculations, 9 out of 10 restaurateurs are anyway constantly on the verge of bankruptcy ;)

But it may also be due to the fact that (at least in many Berlin establishments) every second cash payment is not entered into the register...

Who actually does a tax audit or something like that at the [broker]? Does anyone really look at that? Does someone sit there and check how many listings he has online, what cars he drives, and whether it’s plausible? I doubt anyone notices if it’s 10 houses sold or 15 ....

But it may also be because (at least in many Berlin establishments) every second cash payment is not entered into the register...

But it’s not just maybe that ;). A representative for cash register systems once told my mother, "There is no cash register system that can’t somehow cheat hiddenly because otherwise it simply wouldn’t be sellable." But that was already a few years ago.

Who actually does a tax audit or something like that on real estate agents? Does anyone really look at that? Does someone sit there and check how many listings they have online, what cars they drive, and whether that’s plausible?

Tax audits are conducted when as part of the income tax return it is reported by the examiner to the tax audit department. Within this framework, such things would also be looked at. But how can certain things be checked if there are no documents about them? It is simply not possible to just accuse the taxpayer of anything. Just because a few properties appear on their website, it does not mean they actually brokered them.

The small business regulation is checked every year in the tax return or in the income surplus calculation. If the revenues exceed the limit, they are obliged to remit VAT in the following year, even if the revenue falls below the limit again. You can read this in §19 UStG.