Federal Fiscal Court confirms legality of late payment penalties

Late payment surcharges are also in line with constitutional and European law in the years after 2018 despite low interest rates

In contrast to the VIII Senate of the Federal Fiscal Court, which recently suspended the levying of late payment surcharges for the years 2019 and 2020 due to doubts about their constitutionality, the V Senate has no such doubts for periods after 2018 either. Referring to judgments from 2022, in which the constitutionality of the surcharges was confirmed at least for the periods up to the end of 2018, the judges found that there is no constitutional or European law doubt about the amount of the late payment surcharges for the years from 2019 onwards despite the permanently low level of interest rates.