Application to set aside a tax assessment under § 299 BAO (Austria)
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This document is in German
The PDF you download is in German — that is the language it has to be filed in, so it is not translated. Everything on this page is here to tell you what it says.
The application to Austria's tax office, the Finanzamt Österreich, to set aside a tax assessment whose ruling is wrong, under § 299 of the Austrian Federal Fiscal Code (BAO) — the route once the one-month deadline for a complaint has passed. It must be lodged within one year of notification of the assessment (§ 302 BAO), names the assessment and says why it is wrong; a new assessment is issued together with the setting aside. Whether to set it aside is at the tax office's discretion. Through FinanzOnline, by post or fax: an e-mail is no submission at all (§§ 85, 86a BAO). In German.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Sender
- Sender's address
- Phone
- Tax office and its PO box (the large-business office only if it keeps your tax account)
- City
- Date
- Austrian tax number (Steuernummer)
- Assessment: kind and period (e.g. income tax assessment 2025)
- Date the tax assessment was issued
- Date of service (DataBox: the day it arrived; if left at the post office: the first day it could be collected)
- Effect of the error in euro (e.g. tax charged too high)
- Grounds: what is wrong with the assessment and why, with facts and evidence, in German
- What changes you ask for (e.g. allow expenses of €2,400), in German
- Evidence
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- What can be done in Austria once the deadline for a complaint against a tax assessment has passed?
- Within one year of notification, you can apply for the assessment to be set aside under § 299 BAO; it is enough that the application is lodged within the year (§ 302 BAO). If an unforeseen or unavoidable event, with at most slight fault, caused the deadline to be missed, reinstatement (Wiedereinsetzung in den vorigen Stand) is possible: within three months after the obstacle ends, together with the complaint itself (§ 308 BAO).
- Is there a right in Austria to have an assessment set aside under § 299 BAO?
- No. Setting aside is at the tax office's discretion: as a rule, correct taxation takes precedence over finality, but an assessment is not set aside for a merely insignificant effect. That is why the letter states the effect in euro. If the application is refused, the refusal is itself a formal decision (Bescheid), against which a complaint can be lodged within one month (§§ 243, 245 BAO).
- What must an application under § 299 of the Austrian BAO contain, and where does it go?
- The designation of the assessment and the grounds on which the alleged error rests (§ 299 Abs 1 BAO). Without the designation the application is rejected, and that cannot be put right later. It goes to the tax office that issued the assessment — through FinanzOnline, by post or fax, not by e-mail (§§ 85, 86a BAO). Days in the post do not count (§ 108 Abs 4 BAO) if the letter is addressed to the right tax office and handed to Österreichische Post AG.
- How does a complaint differ from an application to set aside under Austria's BAO?
- A complaint is a legal remedy: it must be decided, by the Federal Fiscal Court if need be, and suspension of collection can be applied for with it (§ 212a BAO). An application under § 299 BAO is at the tax office's discretion and does not stop payment; anyone unable to pay can apply for payment relief (§ 212 BAO). While the one-month deadline is still running, the complaint is the route the law provides.
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