German Finance Ministry Defends Postal Service Tax Break
BERLIN. The German finance ministry defended its decision in 1998 and 1999 to exempt Deutsche Post from paying euro 450 million ($394 million) in estimated annual value-added taxes as the government prepared to partially privatize the national postal service. “The decision was not only defensible, but it was also the right thing to do,” ministry undersecretary Heribert Zitzelsberger said on Friday. Federal Audit Office officials criticized the decision in an internal report leaked to the media on Thursday.
