Aufforderung zur vorzeitigen Abgabe der Steuererklärung

Has your tax return been requested prematurely by the tax office?

Taxpayers who have their tax return(s) prepared by a member of the tax advisory professions are obliged to submit their tax return(s) for 2018 by 29.02.2020 at the latest in accordance with Section 149 (3) of the German Fiscal Code (AO).

However, under certain statutory conditions, the tax office is entitled to request the tax return(s) before this deadline, i.e. ahead of time.

The prerequisite is that one of the circumstances specified in Section 149 (4) AO applies. Currently, the tax office refers to cases in which the tax return(s) for the previous year were submitted late or not at all (Section 149 para. 4 sentence 1 no. 1a AO).

The requested tax return must be submitted within the deadline set by the tax office (the deadline is 4 months).

If the deadline specified in the letter from the tax office is not met, a late filing surcharge must always be imposed. In addition, the tax office can enforce the submission of the tax return by means of coercive measures (e.g. penalty payment) or estimate the tax bases.