Freihafen ade!

摘要

Das Gesetz zur Aufhebung des Freihafens Hamburg ist vom Bundestag verabschiedet worden und tritt am 1. Januar 2013 in Kraft. Die Gründe, die Hamburg und die Bundesrepublik Deutschland dazu bewogen haben, sind vielf?ltig. Zum einen bringt ein Zoll-Freihafen in heutigen Zeiten keinen nennenswerten Vorteil mehr, weil immer mehr EU-Waren importiert werden, die als ?Gemeinschaftsware? bereits zollfrei abgefertigt sind. Au?erdem werden Wettbewerbsvorteile gegenüber den anderen Seeh?fen in Europa, insbesondere Rotterdam, abgebaut. Somit wird in Hamburg ein einheitlicher Standard geschaffen, der für alle Seeh?fen der EU gilt.%After 124 years the ?Freihafen? (free port) of Hamburg will be transformed into a regular sea port on 1 January 2013. The area will then be part of German domestic customs territory. The reason presented by politics is the reduction of bureaucracy, since there will be no customs inspections any longer, leading to an alignment with other EU ports. For companies in the port area, however, the change may result de facto in an import of goods. Fixed assets, circulating assets and stock of goods become subject to German tax law and have to be measured separately for tax purposes. Author Ralf Moser recommends to write all the fixed assets into an investment list (statements of investment) and to document whether the specific objects within non-current assets are Community (EU) or non-Community goods, even if custom authorities may not demand such a detailed procedure. This is because even the destruction of non-Community goods must be declared to customs. Services between companies within the once free port are now also subject to taxation. Taking these bureaucratic burdens into account, it will prove hard for politicians to keep their promise to create no additional costs for consumers by the dissolution of the free port.