Gross negligence in electronic tax returns

The Federal Fiscal Court considers a missing entry in the electronic tax return as gross negligence on the part of the taxpayer, which means that a subsequent correction of the tax assessment is not possible.

Even a tax assessment that has already become final can still be amended if the taxpayer is not grossly at fault for the fact that the fact leading to the amendment only became known later. The Federal Fiscal Court has now ruled that a missing entry in an electronic tax return with ELSTER can indeed be gross negligence and not just a mere entry error. This is not changed by the fact that ELSTER does not provide a complete printout of the tax return, but only outputs the values that the taxpayer has entered.