Request to defer tax and pay in instalments (Germany)
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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.
Your application to the German tax office (Finanzamt) to defer tax that is due under § 222 of the German Fiscal Code (AO) and pay it in instalments or later, where paying on the due date would be a substantial hardship — after a large back-payment, a lost contract or an illness, for example. The letter gives the tax, period, amount and due date, proposes a payment plan, explains the hardship, sums up income, outgoings and assets and deals with security. Deferral interest at 0.5% a month costs less than the 1% late-payment surcharge. In German.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Applicant
- Applicant's address
- Tax office (Finanzamt)
- Tax office's address
- City
- Date
- Tax number (Steuernummer)
- Type of tax
- Tax year or period
- Amount due
- Due date
- Payment proposal (e.g. six monthly instalments of €500)
- Why paying now would be a substantial hardship
- Income, outgoings and assets in brief
- Security
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- When does a German tax office defer a tax debt?
- When paying on the due date would be a substantial hardship and deferral does not appear to put the tax at risk (§ 222 AO). This mainly means temporary cash-flow problems — after a lost contract, an illness or an unexpectedly high back-payment, for example — combined with a realistic plan to clear the debt. Tax that someone else withholds and pays over for you, such as wage tax deducted by an employer, cannot be deferred.
- What does a German tax deferral cost compared with simply not paying?
- Deferred tax bears interest of 0.5% for each full month (§§ 234 and 238 AO); in exceptional cases the tax office can waive it, and the letter asks it to. Not paying without a deferral costs a 1% late-payment surcharge for every month or part of a month (§ 240 AO) and risks enforcement. On €6,000 that is €30 of interest against €60 of surcharge a month.
- When and how is a tax deferral requested in Germany?
- Preferably before the due date, because late-payment surcharges run from then. No particular form is required: by letter to the tax office that assessed the tax, or through Mein ELSTER as a ‘Sonstige Nachricht an das Finanzamt’. If enforcement has already started, contact the tax office’s enforcement unit, which can suspend enforcement against payment by instalments (Vollstreckungsaufschub, § 258 AO).
- What information and evidence does a German tax office expect with a deferral request?
- Why you cannot pay now, what your income, outgoings and assets look like, and how you intend to clear the debt. Enclose evidence such as bank statements, a list of amounts owed to you or a doctor’s certificate. Deferral is normally to be granted against security (§ 222 AO); whether the tax office waives it for a short period is decided case by case, and the letter lets you choose whether to offer security.
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.
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