Changes in the taxation procedure

The taxation procedure is being modernized in many respects, some of which will have an impact as early as this year.

From the tax return to the tax assessment notice to a possible appeal, it should be possible to complete the tax procedure completely electronically from 2017. This is the core of the Act on the Modernization of the Taxation Procedure, most of which came into force at the turn of the year. Nevertheless, most of the changes will not have an immediate impact because they affect tax return obligations and assessments in 2017, which will not start until 2018.

• Data transmission: The legal framework for the electronic data transmission obligations of companies and organizations has been standardized. Only procedure-specific special rules for individual data transmission obligations of employers, social security institutions, insurance companies and banks are now regulated in the respective special laws.

  

• Tax return: In the future, fewer supporting documents will have to be submitted with the tax return. Because taxpayers must be informed by the relevant offices about the data transmitted to the tax office anyway, the information no longer needs to be transferred to the tax return if the taxpayer believes the data communicated to be correct. In this case, the data provided by third parties shall be deemed to have been provided by the taxpayer, and the tax return shall be automatically complete in this respect. If the data is incorrect to the taxpayer's disadvantage, the tax assessment must be amended, even if the error is not noticed until after the expiry of the objection period.

• Donation receipts: Certificates for donations in 2017 only have to be submitted to the tax office upon request. With the donor's consent, the recipient can also report the donation directly to the tax authorities, which eliminates the document retention requirement. Otherwise, donation receipts must be retained for one year from receipt of the tax assessment notice, unless they have already been submitted to the tax office anyway.

• Calculation and spelling errors: As of 2017, the cancellation or amendment of tax assessments will be mandatory if the taxpayer made clerical or calculation errors when preparing his tax return and therefore failed to notify the tax office of legally relevant facts.