Objection to Tax Assessment Notice

A ques­tion that concerns a large part of the German popu­la­tion on an annual basis is the follo­wing: When will I receive my tax assess­ment notice after submit­ting my tax return? If this notice contains discrepan­cies, the subse­quent ques­tion arises: Under what condi­tions is an objec­tion to the tax assess­ment notice permis­sible, and in which cases does such an objec­tion make sense?

The basics of the tax assess­ment notice are outlined below, and the pres­sing ques­tions about the permis­si­bi­lity and reason­ab­leness of filing an objec­tion to a tax assess­ment notice are analyzed and discussed.

Key Points About Objec­ting to a Tax Assess­ment Notice (ESt-Bescheid)


Tax Deter­mi­na­tion: As a response from the tax office to the tax return, the tax assess­ment deter­mines whether there is a payment due or a refund.

Struc­ture of the Tax Assess­ment Notice: The tax assess­ment follows a largely stan­dar­dized, legally prescribed struc­ture.

Revie­wing the Tax Assess­ment Notice: Upon receipt, the tax assess­ment should be reviewed for errors and discrepan­cies.

Objec­tion to the Tax Assess­ment Notice: In the case of an erro­n­eous tax assess­ment, it is advi­sable to file an objec­tion with the respon­sible tax office.

Short Dead­lines for Objec­tion: In prin­ciple, there is only one month from the noti­fi­ca­tion of the tax assess­ment to file an objec­tion.

What Is a Tax Assessment Notice? – An Overview

The income tax assess­ment notice (commonly referred to as the tax assess­ment notice) is an offi­cial docu­ment that serves as the tax authority’s response to the tax return you submitted. Through the tax assess­ment notice, the respon­sible tax autho­rity deter­mines your tax liabi­lity. This deter­mi­na­tion may result in either a refund or an addi­tional payment of taxes for you. How the tax autho­rity calcu­lates this deter­mi­na­tion in detail can be found in your tax assess­ment notice.

An Example of What a Tax Assessment Notice Looks Like.

The Tax Return as the Basis for the Tax Assessment Notice

Before recei­ving your income tax assess­ment notice, it is manda­tory to file your tax return with the respon­sible tax office.

With incre­asing digi­tiza­tion, in addi­tion to using tradi­tional paper forms, you now have the option to create and submit your tax return online. Beyond the elec­tronic tax decla­ra­tion (ELSTER), various tax soft­ware programs offer the service of prepa­ring your tax return digi­tally and effi­ci­ently. The digital tax return has the advan­tage of reduced error rates and gene­rally faster proces­sing by the rele­vant tax autho­rity. However, regard­less of occa­sional signi­fi­cantly longer or shorter proces­sing times, you should expect to wait six to eight weeks before recei­ving your tax assess­ment notice.

If, after six months, you have not received your tax assess­ment notice—assuming this period has not been inter­rupted by inqui­ries from the tax authority—you should inquire with the respon­sible tax office about the reason for the delay. In such cases, you also have the option to file a formal complaint of inac­tion.

The Structure of a Tax Assessment Notice

Although a tax assess­ment notice may appear complex at first glance, it follows a stan­dar­dized struc­ture.

This struc­ture is based on binding legal requi­re­ments. Manda­tory elements include the type and amount of the assessed tax, the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of the taxpayer, and the respon­sible tax office. In addi­tion, the law recom­mends inclu­ding instruc­tions on legal reme­dies and a justi­fi­ca­tion for the assess­ment. While the absence of manda­tory elements renders the income tax assess­ment notice invalid as an admi­nis­tra­tive act under § 125 Abs. 1 AO, and thus inef­fec­tive under § 124 Abs. 3 AO, the omis­sion of recom­mended elements gene­rally does not affect the vali­dity of the notice. However, filing an objec­tion to the tax assess­ment notice may still be reasonable and appro­priate in both cases.

In accordance with these legal requi­re­ments, the first page of the tax assess­ment notice includes your personal data as well as the deter­mi­na­tion of a refund or addi­tional payment. The follo­wing pages provide a break­down of your income and an expl­ana­tion of the calcu­la­tion method used by the respon­sible tax office.

The Detailed Structure of a Tax Assessment Notice

Accor­ding to these guide­lines, the first page of the income tax assess­ment notice begins with the header. This includes the taxpayer’s personal infor­ma­tion as well as the name of the respon­sible tax office. It is followed by details regar­ding the type of tax, the tax year, and the amount of taxable income. After speci­fying the period on which the tax calcu­la­tion is based, the calcu­lated tax refund or addi­tional payment is listed under the heading “Assess­ment.”

The second and third pages of the tax assess­ment notice then provide a detailed expl­ana­tion of the taxable income under the section “Taxa­tion Bases.” Here, your reported income (e.g., income from self-employ­ment or employ­ment, rental income, etc.) and expenses (e.g., work-related expenses, commu­ting allo­wance, etc.) are itemized. From this, you can deduce which items the respon­sible tax office has reco­gnized and used as the basis for calcu­la­ting your income tax.

The final section, “Expl­ana­tions,” concludes the tax assess­ment notice. This section provides reasons why the tax office has (or has not) reco­gnized certain income and expenses. It is followed by instruc­tions on legal reme­dies, which state that the permis­sible legal remedy against a tax assess­ment notice is an objec­tion, as per § 347 Abs. 1 AO.

An omitted or incor­rect notice of legal reme­dies does not affect the vali­dity of the tax assess­ment notice. However, it does extend the objec­tion period from one month to one year from the date the tax assess­ment notice is issued, as stipu­lated in § 356 Abs. 2 AO.

Objection to Tax Assessment Notice

Keeping the stan­dar­dized struc­ture of a tax assess­ment notice in mind, you should promptly conduct a detailed review of the infor­ma­tion in the notice after recei­ving it. Do not accept your tax assess­ment notice without ques­tion, despite its offi­cial nature; it is prepared by humans, and errors can occur. Accor­ding to statis­tics from the German Taxpayers’ Asso­cia­tion, appro­xi­m­ately one in five income tax assess­ment notices contains errors.

To ensure your income tax assess­ment notice does not become part of these statis­tics, you can take simple precau­tions: The tax assess­ment notice (ESt-Bescheid) should be checked for formal and substan­tive errors. Pay parti­cular atten­tion to whether the manda­tory and recom­mended legal requi­re­ments have been included in the notice. Addi­tio­nally, errors are often found in general personal infor­ma­tion, the allo­wances you have claimed, and the correct calcu­la­tion of the “total amount of income.” You should also verify whether the extra­or­di­nary expenses you have declared have been taken into account and whether your work-related expenses, along with other poten­ti­ally deduc­tible costs, have been correctly calcu­lated.

If you notice any discrepan­cies that cannot be explained, it is advi­sable to file an objec­tion to the income tax assess­ment notice.

Filing an objec­tion to the tax assess­ment notice is advi­sable if you detect errors during your review of the notice or if discrepancies—particularly diffe­rences between the tax return and the tax assess­ment notice—remain unre­solved.

Requirements for Filing an Objection to a Tax Assessment Notice

The prere­qui­sites for filing an objec­tion to a tax assess­ment notice are the exis­tence of a valid objec­tion reason and compli­ance with the objec­tion dead­line. Addi­tio­nally, the objec­tion should be formally correct and include a justi­fi­ca­tion to improve the chances of success.

Objec­tion reasons may include errors in the tax assess­ment notice, unex­plained discrepan­cies between the tax return and the tax assess­ment notice, or the rejec­tion by the tax office of costs, tax allo­wances, or flat-rate amounts that were stated in the tax return.

An objec­tion is considered timely if it is filed within one month of the noti­fi­ca­tion of the tax assess­ment notice. If this dead­line is missed, the tax assess­ment notice becomes legally binding, meaning that the tax deter­mi­na­tion can no longer be changed. Aside from rare dead­line extensions—such as a successful appli­ca­tion for rein­state­ment to the prior status or cases where the manda­tory legal remedy notice is not included in the tax assess­ment notice—it is crucial to adhere to the short objec­tion dead­line.

The dead­line begins on the date the income tax assess­ment notice is considered noti­fied. Accor­ding to § 122 Abs. 1 AO, this is three working days after the date speci­fied in the tax assess­ment notice. The same applies under § 122 Abs. 2a AO for elec­tro­ni­cally trans­mitted tax assess­ment notices. If the start or end of the dead­line falls on a public holiday or weekend, the dead­line begins or ends on the next working day.

Example Calcu­la­tion: Until When Can I File an Objec­tion?

Date of the post­mark on the tax assess­ment notice: December 1

Plus noti­fi­ca­tion of the admi­nis­tra­tive act (3 working days): + 3 days

Start of the objec­tion period: December 4

End of the objec­tion period: January 4

If January 4 falls on a Sunday, the dead­line would extend to the next working day, in this case, January 5.


Example Calculation for Filing an Objection to a Tax Assessment Notice

If the dead­line has already expired, there may still be ways to amend or revoke a flawed tax assess­ment notice. Our tax law experts carefully examine whether the correc­tion provi­sions of the German Tax Code (Abga­ben­ord­nung) are appli­cable in such cases.

Formally, it must also be noted that the objec­tion must be submitted in writing. Manda­tory formal requi­re­ments for the admis­si­bi­lity of an objec­tion include the personal data of the objector, the offi­cial desi­gna­tion of the notice, and the tax year. The objec­tion must be addressed to the tax office that issued the disputed tax assess­ment notice. The letter must make it unequi­vo­cally clear that an objec­tion is being filed.

Although not legally required, provi­ding a justi­fi­ca­tion is essen­tial to the success of your objec­tion to the tax assess­ment notice. Only if the respon­sible tax autho­rity under­stands which errors you iden­tify or which deter­mi­na­tions you speci­fi­cally contest can it conduct a targeted review of these aspects and uncover internal errors.

In some situa­tions, it may be advi­sable to file an objec­tion without provi­ding a detailed justi­fi­ca­tion imme­dia­tely and to submit this later to meet the objec­tion dead­line.

One advan­tage of the objec­tion process is that the tax office must review the disputed tax assess­ment notice again without char­ging any fees. The respon­sible autho­rity is gene­rally the tax office that issued the original notice.

The Consequences of the Objection

If the objec­tion is successful, the tax office will issue a revised notice that corrects the error. If this revised notice contains further discrepan­cies, another objec­tion can be filed against it.

Initi­ally, a permis­sible objec­tion to a tax assess­ment notice means that the respon­sible tax office will subject the notice to a renewed and compre­hen­sive review – and, if neces­sary, issue a corrected version.

However, keep in mind that filing an objec­tion does not auto­ma­ti­cally suspend the payment obli­ga­tions arising from the original tax assess­ment notice; the objec­tion does not gene­rally have a suspen­sive effect. Such a suspen­sion can only be achieved by filing an appli­ca­tion for suspen­sion of enforce­ment – we can also handle this appli­ca­tion for you. In urgent matters invol­ving the suspen­sion of enforce­ment or interim orders, the appli­ca­tion should be justi­fied imme­dia­tely.

If the tax autho­rity has doubts about the lega­lity of the issued tax assess­ment notice, it will, in most cases, approve an appli­ca­tion for suspen­sion of enforce­ment. However, it is important to note that the appli­cant may be required to pay so-called suspen­sion inte­rest if the notice is not amended in their favor. This inte­rest amounts to 0.5% per month. We will assess indi­vi­du­ally whether an addi­tional appli­ca­tion for suspen­sion of enforce­ment is advi­sable and neces­sary in your case, along­side the objec­tion.

During the review process, the tax office may re-evaluate all compon­ents of the notice, inclu­ding aspects not addressed in the objec­tion. Further­more, it is possible that the tax office may iden­tify errors in the tax assess­ment notice that had previously worked in your favor. Such a refor­matio in peius (“change for the worse”), which could result in a reduced tax refund to your disad­van­tage, cannot be carried out by the tax office without noti­fying you. In such a case, you have the option to with­draw your objec­tion under § 362 AO. This with­drawal will render the original tax assess­ment notice legally binding.

If the tax office rejects an amend­ment, a so-called objec­tion decision will be issued. With this decision, the objec­tion proce­dure is concluded. In this case, the only remai­ning option is to take the matter to the tax court to chall­enge the objec­tion decision.

How Can We Assist You with Errors in Your Tax Assessment Notice?

We can provide you with profes­sional advice and years of expe­ri­ence when it comes to draf­ting the justi­fi­ca­tion for your objec­tion. Even less obvious errors that may have been included in your tax assess­ment notice can be iden­ti­fied and refuted with a well-struc­tured justi­fi­ca­tion.

However, we also offer assis­tance at later stages of the process. It is possible that, even after an objec­tion, the respon­sible tax office may main­tain its deter­mi­na­tion. In such cases, you still have the option of pursuing legal action through the compe­tent tax court. Toge­ther, we can discuss which course of action is most appro­priate for your specific situa­tion.

In any case, our law firm, with its exten­sive expe­ri­ence in criminal law and tax law, will provide you with excel­lent cont­acts and effi­cient legal counsel.

The tax assess­ment notice is an offi­cial docu­ment issued annu­ally in a stan­dar­dized format. On the first page, you will find your personal details as well as the amount you are either owed as a refund or required to pay to the tax office. If a payment is due, this page will also include the bank account details of the tax office and the dead­line by which the payment must be made.

The subse­quent pages, typi­cally the second and third, provide an over­view of your income and detail how the tax was calcu­lated. If the tax autho­ri­ties made adjus­t­ments, such as rejec­ting certain expenses, these discrepan­cies must be explained in writing follo­wing the calcu­la­tion section.

On the final page, you will find instruc­tions on legal reme­dies, which outline the options available to you if you disagree with the assess­ment notice.

Whether it is a calcu­la­tion error or a typo, an error in the tax assess­ment notice can be corrected by filing an objection—provided you act within the objec­tion dead­line. This dead­line begins three days after the date of the post­mark, and from that point, you have one month to file an objec­tion.

An objec­tion is parti­cu­larly wort­hwhile if you believe the tax assess­ment notice contains errors, such as the rejec­tion of claimed expenses, incom­plete conside­ra­tion of income, or obvious calcu­la­tion mistakes. An objec­tion may also be justi­fied in cases of unclear calcu­la­tions or discrepan­cies from your tax return. Since no fees are incurred, it is always worth carefully revie­wing the notice and filing an objec­tion in a timely manner if you have any doubts.

An objec­tion to a tax assess­ment notice must gene­rally be filed within one month of receipt and in written form. If the justi­fi­ca­tion is not imme­dia­tely available, the objec­tion can initi­ally be submitted without detailed reaso­ning to meet the dead­line. The justi­fi­ca­tion can then be provided at a later date.

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