A year ago, the career of Peer treasure ended at Qiagen from one day to the other. For about 25 years, he had led the company to become the leading German Biotech company, built up, then he went suddenly, probably because of disagreements over a proposed merger. But, the research of SZ and WDR, show treasure was one of the best-paid managers in Germany – while Qiagen pushed its tax burden through tax-saving models and at the same time public funding in the millions suffered. If this Wednesday the Finance Committee of the NRW state Parliament, the matter employed, is likely to be, therefore, heated.
Qiagen is considered the largest German Biotech company, its test devices belong to the standard repertoire of many laboratories around the world. However, even for this, the company has paid from Hilden, near Düsseldorf, his top staff for years well above average. So treasure received in the past year alone, more than 41 million euros. These personnel costs had a significant effect on the balance sheet: 2019 Qiagen was in the red. Now it comes to the question of whether a company paid, apparently, unusually high salaries and tax costs, the effect of reducing the money set in, with tax, should be encouraged.
With 1.3 billion euros in sales and more than 5,000 employees worldwide, Qiagen is in the M-Dax and Tec-Dax listed, so for medium-sized companies in Germany. However, the remuneration of the chief played in a League with much larger companies: for many Years, Qiagen content pointed to from the cost of its top managers of nine million euros in the year and more. His salary got a treasure here, for the most part not in cash but in the Form of shares and options, which were linked to the development of the company. This is not unusual, but the amount falls out of the frame. For comparison: Volkswagen-chief Herbert Diess was 2019 9.9 million euros, the highest paid Dax-Manager. He is responsible for more than 250 billion euros in sales and more than half a Million employees worldwide.
Treasury did not comment on the matter. Qiagen emphasized on request, the remuneration of the Manager had been usual in the market. Content experts come to a different assessment: “remuneration for the company’s chief Executive of nine million euros per year in Germany are extremely rare and significantly higher than what is paid on average in companies of comparable size, the medium-sized companies,” says Christiane Hölz of Deutsche schutzvereinigung für wertpapierbesitz. In your assessment, the former Qiagen-in-chief was paid, as it occurs only in a very few large corporations. Comes to a similar conclusion, the salary expert Conrad Pramböck. “Everything about five million total package in Germany’s Top League,” he says. He would need to set a remuneration for a Qiagen-in-chief, would be between 1.5 and 2.5 million euros.
The salary costs were recorded primarily in Germany – and expressed here are the tax burden
The balance sheets of Qiagen also show that the high content costs for the Top Management for many years, especially in Germany, although darling was not registered only as Manager, but also in the case of the Qiagen-Holding in the Netherlands and further subsidiaries abroad. Experts agree that such a practice is unusual to say the least. Thus, the cost for the Top-content to be reduced, especially the taxes, had to pay Qiagen in Germany. And that is where the next Problem might be: “In this company, the warning signs are really dark red,” says Christoph Traut Vetter from the tax justice network. Tax avoidance uses of legal game rooms, NGOs such as the tax justice network are calling for but long, that the state take a closer look. “When the state encourages enterprises, rescues, or commissioned, and, as in this case, millions of outputs, he should look at especially carefully, whether this firm pays in Germany and tidy to control.”
Qiagen stresses, one should always keep to all applicable laws and work with the highest integrity. According to a report on tax-saving models of the company of SZ and WDR, the Green challenge now, however, education in the budget Committee. From the NRW Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday that they could not assess the adequacy of salaries.
For Qiagen the game, at present, the company Corona developed rapid tests. After the approval of the first promotion of 18.3 million euros for the expansion of facilities for the production of laboratory diagnostics for the Corona-testing, the company had already made a further request – this Time, about 19 million euros. A decision on the second application had already been dropped, the company but not yet notified, according to the Ministry of health. Whether millions more will flow, kept the authority for themselves. The request would be granted, would Qiagen from the country, a total of almost 38 million euros to support – so in about as much as Qiagen 2019, reported in the year of the departure of Peer a treasure, as a loss.