Due date requirement for the ten-day rule

The allocation of payments to the previous calendar year under the ten-day rule in the income statement requires that the payment only became due around the turn of the year.

In the case of revenue surplus accounting, regularly recurring income and expenses that occur shortly before or after the calendar year can be allocated to the calendar year to which they economically belong. Some time ago, the Federal Fiscal Court set the deadline for this short period at ten days. In a new ruling, however, the judges have now clarified that the payment must also have become due within this ten-day period. The dispute concerned sales tax for the months of May to July, which was not paid until shortly after the end of the year.

Here, the Federal Fiscal Court agreed with the tax office that the deduction in the previous year was ruled out because the tax had already become due much earlier. Otherwise, subsequent payments for obligations that had already long since fallen due could lead to a deduction of operating expenses independent of the time of payment, which would contradict the cash principle in the income statement, which can only be broken within narrow legal limits.