Data query by the tax office suspends the statute of limitations for payments

A query to the Federal Central Tax Office by the tax office may interrupt the payment limitation period for claims of the tax office.

The tax office can suspend the statute of limitations for tax claims in various ways. These include inquiries into the residence or whereabouts of the tax debtor - always provided that the address of the debtor is actually unknown to the tax office. A purely pro forma inquiry cannot interrupt the statute of limitations, as the Federal Fiscal Court ruled some time ago. The Federal Fiscal Court also requires an external measure for the interruption of the statute of limitations. Internal measures by the tax office are therefore not sufficient.

However, the effect of a residence inquiry that interrupts the statute of limitations is not dependent on the tax debtor learning of this measure. The only decisive factor is that the tax office decides to enforce its payment claim and that this also becomes visible to the outside world. The Federal Fiscal Court also sees such an external effect if the tax office accesses the database with the tax identification numbers and registration data of the taxpayers through an online inquiry at the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt).

According to a new ruling by the Federal Fiscal Court, this means that a different authority is contacted, because although the BZSt is also a tax authority, it is subordinate to the federal government, while the tax offices are assigned to the respective state tax authority. Whether the tax office that carried out the query has local jurisdiction has no influence on the effectiveness of the interruption of the statute of limitations.