Objection to a tax assessment (Germany)
Published byDocMuse
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.
Your objection (Einspruch) to a notice from the German tax office — an income tax, VAT or property tax value assessment, for example — or to a child benefit decision of the Familienkasse. The deadline is one month from notification, and since 2025 a posted notice counts as notified only on the fourth day after posting (§§ 355 and 122 of the German Fiscal Code, AO). The letter identifies the notice, says what should change, gives the grounds or announces them, and can ask for payment to be suspended, because the objection alone does not stop it. In German.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Sender
- Sender's address
- Tax office or family benefits office (Familienkasse) that issued the notice
- Address of the office that issued the notice
- City
- Date
- Date the tax assessment was issued
- Tax number (Steuernummer), or the child benefit number for the Familienkasse
- German tax ID (Steuer-ID), if you have one
- Kind of act challenged (e.g. corrective tax assessment)
- Tax year or period
- What should be changed (e.g. allow work expenses)
- Grounds for the objection (may follow later)
- Suspension of payment (Aussetzung der Vollziehung)
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- How is the deadline for objecting to a German tax assessment worked out?
- It is one month from notification (§ 355(1) AO). Since 2025 a posted notice counts as notified on the fourth day after posting (§ 122(2) AO), and a notice provided in ELSTER likewise after four days (§ 122a AO). If that day is a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the next working day counts, and the same applies if the deadline itself ends on such a day. Example: posted on Tuesday 6 October 2026, notified on Monday 12 October 2026, deadline ends at midnight on Thursday 12 November 2026.
- What if the deadline for a German tax objection has already passed?
- If the notice has no information on remedies, or wrong information, the deadline is one year (§ 356(2) AO). Someone prevented through no fault of their own, by serious illness for example, can apply for restoration of the deadline within one month of the obstacle ending and lodge the objection at the same time (§ 110 AO). Otherwise the notice becomes final and can be changed only in the cases the law provides for, such as new facts coming to light.
- Does the tax have to be paid in Germany while the objection is pending?
- Yes. The objection does not hold up payment (§ 361(1) AO), and unpaid tax costs a 1% late-payment surcharge for every month or part of a month (§ 240 AO). If there are serious doubts about the assessment’s lawfulness, the tax office can suspend enforcement (§ 361(2) AO); the letter makes that request if you choose it. If the objection fails, the suspension costs interest of 0.5% for each full month (§§ 237 and 238 AO).
- Can the German tax office make the assessment worse after an objection?
- Yes. In the objection procedure the tax office reviews the whole case afresh and may change the assessment to your disadvantage. It must warn you first and give you the chance to comment (§ 367(2) AO); you can then withdraw the objection and the original assessment stands. Against the decision on the objection, an action can be brought before the finance court within one month (§ 47 FGO).
- How and where is a German tax objection lodged in time?
- With the office that issued the notice, in writing or electronically (§ 357 AO): by letter, by fax, through Mein ELSTER (as a ‘Sonstige Nachricht an das Finanzamt’, for example), or by plain e-mail where the office gives an e-mail address (BFH III R 26/14). A signature is not required, but it must be clear who is objecting. What counts is receipt by the deadline: if need be, put the letter in the tax office’s letterbox in front of a witness — the tracking of a letterbox-delivered registered letter does not reliably prove receipt.
- Does the letter also work against German child benefit and property tax notices?
- For decisions of the Familienkasse, such as cancelling or reclaiming child benefit, yes: those too are challenged by an objection under the Fiscal Code. Likewise for the tax office’s property tax value and base-amount assessments. Not, however, for the municipality’s property tax demand: depending on the Land, that is challenged by an administrative appeal (Widerspruch) or in court, as the information on remedies at the end of the notice states.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
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