Tag: Deutsche Post

Steinbrueck presses for Deutsche Post to keep sales tax exemption (Germany)

Posted by | Jan 16, 2008 | |

Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck plans to maintain Deutsche Post AG’s exemption from Germany’s general sales tax, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.

The move would rebuff economy minister Michael Glos, who is seeking to limit Deutsche Post’s existing tax break to services to households and small businesses, the newspaper said.

Companies that deliver letters countrywide at ‘affordable prices’ should be spared the general sales tax of 19 pct, the paper quoted the documents as saying.

This would leave only Deutsche Post benefiting from the exemption, the paper said.

Competitors of Deutsche Post including PIN Group have claimed that new minimum wage rules favour Deutsche Post and are forcing them to abandon or rein in plans to compete with the former postal services monopoly across Germany.

They have also said Deutsche Post’s tax break puts them at an even greater disadvantage.

The sales tax exemption is designed to reward Deutsche Post for delivering mail to even the remotest parts of Germany.

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DHL considers U.S. future

Posted by | Jan 16, 2008 | |

Deutsche Post will likely unveil plans for its problem-plagued DHL business in the United States on March 6, say analysts.

When the German parent company releases its earnings report, losses are expected for the express unit which lags behind UPS and FedEx in the U.S. market.

In December, Bear Stearns called for the German parent company to “back away from U.S. domestic express.” In last month’s report, Bear Stearns analyst Andrew Beh called on Deutsche Post management to “reconsider its strategy to become a global express operation offering international and domestic service in all major markets under an integrated brand and service umbrella.”

This month another investment analyst, Morgan Stanley, also made a rare direct call for a DHL pull out, saying Deutsche Post needed to make the move in order to make its own financial projections.

Deutsche Post and DHL say they remain committed to their U.S. operations.

“The U.S. is an important market in our commitment to offer a truly global service network,” DHL said in a statement. “As the world’s leading Express and Logistics company, the U.S. is strategically important to the Group both as a stand-alone market and as a high-performance extension of our global service platform.”

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DHL Ireland profits plunged 200pc in 2006

Posted by | Jan 16, 2008 | |

The Irish wing of distribution giant DHL endured a profit fall of more than 200pc in 2006, despite a marginal increase in turnover to EUR 163m.
Figures just filed with the Companies Office show the earnings plunge was largely linked to exceptional costs, including EUR 1.354m for redundancy and relocation costs.
Those costs were linked to DHL’s 2007 move to a new distribution centre in north Dublin.
One of Ireland’s largest private distributors, DHL employed 795 people at the end of 2006, down from 843 the previous year.
The company achieved sales of EUR 163m for the year, up from 2005’s result of EUR 157m. Operating profit, however, tumbled from EUR 5.417m in 2005 to EUR 2.885m in 2006, on foot of higher costs.
A higher interest and tax bill put further pressure on the company’s bottom line, which ultimately delivered profits of EUR 1.16m for the year, down from EUR 4.468m the previous year.
The company’s directors noted the year’s performance was “in line with expectations and in line with overall performance of the Irish market”.
The accounts also detail a EUR 20.2m loan which was advanced to DHL in 2006 by ultimate parent company Deutsche Post AG, and a EUR 559,000 pension refund which will be treated in the 2007 filings.
During the year, the company’s four directors saw their own remuneration drop by more than 18pc to EUR 346,000, while average staff costs rose by about EUR 1,500 to EUR 47,500.
DHL Ireland closed the year with equity shareholders funds of EUR 12.1m, up from EUR 10.3m in 2005, and retained profits of more than EUR 10m.

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Tax check for pensioners in Germany helps save cash

Posted by | Jan 15, 2008 | |

Do I need to file a tax return or not? That is the question more and more pensioners who have rarely had to have any kind of dealings with the Finanzamt (German tax department) until now are asking themselves.

However, the Alterseinkünftegesetz (German retirement income act) requires approximately 3.5 million pension recipients to file a return. The fact that the Department of Finance will in future know about pensioners’ income because it can exchange data with other departments has made this a particularly explosive issue. Many of those affected are unclear about the legal position – and hence also about the tax relief options that are often available to them.

Two strong partners

This is where a new co-operation between two strong partners comes into the picture. Germany’s largest income tax assistance society, Vereinigte Lohnsteuerhilfe e. V. (VLH), and Deutsche Post AG’s Pension Service have set up a joint online service. VLH’s experts have set up the so-called ‘tax check’ on the Pension Service’s service platform, www.rentenservice.de and it can be used by pensioners and helpful family members with internet access free of charge as of now.

VLH and Deutsche Post’s Pension Service have a special offer for pensioners who avail themselves of VLH’s advisory services if it transpires that they are required to file a return. When they present their pensioner’s identity card, the joining fee, which is currently EUR10, is waived.

By expanding the portal, the Pension Service and various initiatives of the German federal government and the European Union are aiming to make using the internet simpler for pensioners.

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