A Riester allowance is only granted to those who are compulsory members of the statutory pension insurance scheme. RA J. Fiala expressly points this out. However, this is not the case for over 1 million assisting spouses. Experts estimate that 5% of all employment relationships are “worthy of review”. Numerous German citizens pay compulsory contributions to the statutory pension insurance scheme, but are not actually compulsory members! Only when the benefit case occurs do the authorities check. If it is then established for employment in the family business that the Riester allowances were granted “wrongly”, the state reclaims them. Hardly any tax consultant is aware of the fact that the status under social security law must be checked regularly. This also applies to insurance intermediaries. If the Riester contract was brokered on the false premise of an alleged subsidy, the citizen can regularly claim damages from the broker and the insurer. According to the legal regulation, the affected family member first bears the cost risk of the reversal. The insurance intermediaries are liable for a maximum of 10 years, after which the statute of limitations expires: If the status check takes place later, the cooperating family member will probably be left with the loss – the claim for repayment of the state subsidy, which is not subject to the statute of limitations. Further information for ep readers is also available via the monthly insurance hotline.
(Electropractor 3/2007, 157)
Courtesy of www.elektropraktiker.de.