Reconstructing missing records
Know enough conditions and you do not have to guess.
Records are not always missing because they were lost — often they were never kept. A till books lump sums without a breakdown, a price list can no longer be found, a period predates the duty to record. For the audit these are the same thing: a gap. For the legal consequence they are not — because under § 162 Abs. 1 Satz 1 AO estimation applies only in so far as the bases cannot be established or calculated.
Conditions instead of assumptions
An assumption says: that is probably how it was. A condition says: it cannot have been otherwise. The difference is not one of wording. An assumption can be replaced by another assumption, and then it is one statement against another. A condition can only be refuted by showing that the underlying fact is wrong — and facts rest on documents.
Which conditions close a gap
The provisions in this table are German law. Most European legal orders know the same principle — set out verbatim and by country in the register of legal bases.
| Condition | What it follows from | What it limits |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase | incoming invoices with quantity and date | What could at most have been produced. |
| The recipe | the recipes of the business | How the input could have been divided across the products. |
| Stock control | stock records and inventories | What was allowed to remain at the end. |
| Capacity | opening hours, seats, equipment, staff | What could have been sold in the time at all. |
| Prices | till data, menus, price change history | Which revenue per unit was possible. |
| The framework | § 162 Abs. 1 Satz 2 AO | All circumstances of significance for the estimate — including those that narrow the range. |
When enough conditions come together, one solution remains
And that is then not an estimate but the only figure that satisfies every condition. That is the whole difference between a reconstruction and an add-back: one follows, the other is applied. And what follows does not have to be estimated under § 162 Abs. 1 Satz 1 AO.
Where the conditions are not enough
Then we say so. Beforehand. Not every gap can be closed — and an expert report that papers over a gap will not survive the first serious question. You learn at the outset what can be reconstructed and what cannot, and decide on that basis.
What we contribute
We record the available conditions in full, examine which solutions they permit, and document every step so that it can be recalculated without special software. Where a condition is missing, that stands in the report — not in the small print.
The legal provisions cited here are given for information and do not replace legal advice.