Tax offices are required to be lenient with companies that have gotten into trouble because of the pandemic.

Due taxes are deferred for longer, the tax authorities may want to forego the usual interest and the advance payments can also be adjusted.

"In large parts of Germany, the coronavirus continues to cause considerable economic damage," said a letter from the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) on December 7th.

It is therefore advisable to "meet the injured party again by appropriately extending the tax measures to avoid undue hardship".

Manfred Schäfers

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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In agreement with the highest tax authorities of the federal states, the Federal Ministry of Finance has determined that “taxpayers who can be shown to have been directly and not insignificantly negatively affected by the economic situation” can submit applications for deferment of the taxes due up until the end of January 2022. The deferrals are to be granted until the end of March at the latest. In addition, follow-up deferrals for these taxes are possible until the end of June 2022 if payment in installments is agreed. When examining the prerequisites for deferrals, “there are no strict requirements to be imposed”, it is explicitly stated. The applications should not be rejected because the taxpayers could not provide detailed proof of the damage caused. "The charging of deferred interest can be waived in the aforementioned cases."

The tax authorities also initially want to refrain from enforcement if the tax debtor "is demonstrably directly and not insignificantly negatively affected economically".

In these cases, the late payment surcharges incurred from January 2021 to the end of March 2022 are to be waived in principle.

In addition, the advance payments can be adjusted using the simplified procedure.

Affected taxpayers can submit applications for adjustment of the advance payments for income tax and corporation tax in 2021 and 2022 by the end of June, "explaining their circumstances".

When examining the prerequisites, there are no strict requirements to be made, it is also said of these cases.

"These applications are not to be rejected because the taxpayers cannot provide detailed proof of the damage caused."