Augustinum uses GAPTEQ for compliance-compliant management of staff accommodation
Individual solution for the tax assessment of residential space for employees.
The client
As an independent, non-profit social enterprise with business areas covering retirement living, educational institutions and a specialist clinic, Augustinum employs around 5,500 people at 40 locations in Germany.
The project
Tax assessment of housing for employees.
Highlights
Challenge
The Augustinum wants to provide new employees with affordable accommodation close to their workplace. However, the group does not own any residential properties of its own, such as the traditional ‘nurses' residences’ for hospital nursing staff. Most of the accommodation is therefore rented on the open market. Subsidised accommodation provided as part of the employment relationship must be declared as a monetary benefit and is subject to tax.
Complex tax assessment
The Augustinum, as the employer, is responsible for calculating the amount and the advance payment to be paid to the tax office – and this is where the difficulty lies:
The amount of tax depends on a variety of factors and varies greatly. The main factors are the person for whom the rental agreement was concluded, the employment relationship, the type of accommodation and the period of use. For example, different allowances apply to persons under the age of 18 than to skilled workers of legal age, and with regard to the flat, factors such as rent per square metre compared to the local rent index, the type of accommodation (e.g. room in a shared flat or private flat) and other factors must be taken into account.
‘GAPTEQ guarantees the data security and transparency required for tax evaluations, which we found difficult to achieve with Excel sheets.’
economic department, Augustinum Non-Profit Ltd.
High data security required
The complex specifications and calculations were initially maintained in Excel spreadsheets. However, with the growing number of tenancies, this solution reached its limits. There was a lack of transparency and a central storage location for detailed information. Above all, however, the data and process security required for sensitive tax matters was not satisfactorily guaranteed. The risk of errors due to manual entries, accidental deletion of formulas and data, or typos that are then almost impossible to detect was too high.
After the property management department was established as a central team, the data was therefore to be transferred from Excel to a database. However, the established property management systems proved to be oversized and technically unsuitable: instead of the usual focus on sales, margins or building maintenance, the Augustinum Group's focus is on compliance. The social welfare organisation's non-profit property management is primarily concerned with the precise tax assessment of housing for around 450 employees.
Solution
The implementation of master data maintenance with GAPTEQ was the task of a dual student who only had basic programming experience. Within a few hours, this application was ready and operational.
Due to this successful start, the controllers subsequently converted the entire investment planning of the department from Excel to GAPTEQ. The student was also able to set up this comprehensive solution independently in a short period of time. The good documentation and available examples from GAPTEQ were helpful, and the manufacturer's helpdesk was able to provide quick assistance with occasional questions.
The tip for the right software solution came from the in-house data warehouse team. The BI team uses the GAPTEQ database front end for financial controlling and also recommended the low-code platform for implementing a customised solution for property management.
With the support of two consultants from QUNIS, GAPTEQ's sister company, the responsible department used the cloud software to build a web application for housing cost control based on a Microsoft SQL database.
‘The consultants asked the right questions and advanced the project with a high level of commitment and expertise, including in terms of content.’
economic department, Augustinum Non-Profit Ltd.
Step-by-step implementation of use cases
Due to the diverse nature of the individual cases, it was virtually impossible to develop a comprehensive technical concept or process description in advance. Instead, development was based on the individual use cases in parallel with tax clarification. As a basis, the project team collected cases nationwide, discussed doubtful cases with the tax advisor and documented and mapped the respective classification in the GAPTEQ application. Forms with selection lists were defined in GAPTEQ for the creation of cases, which now ensure uniform data entry and a standardised procedure.
The technically sophisticated system solution was ready within a few months and has now completely replaced the previous Excel sheets. The database is currently being populated with information from the personnel system and additional information.
Result
With the GAPTEQ solution, Augustinum can now carry out an accurate and traceable assessment of tenancies based on standardised information and is also able to provide information to the tax office at any time. All the framework conditions for tax assessment are stored correctly and easily accessible in the database, and new cases are created in a structured manner in forms.
Standardised information and processes
Optimised collaboration
Flexible internal development
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