Federal Finance Court

Federal Finance Court - BFG -
State level	Federation
position	Administrative court
Supervisory body (s)	Federal Ministry of Finance (in matters relating to the administration of justice)
Consist	since January 1, 2014
Arose from	Independent finance senate
Headquarters	Vienna 3 , Hintere Zollamtsstraße 2b
president	vacant Vice President : Christian Lenneis
Website	bfg.gv.at

The Federal Administrative Court for Finances (in short: Federal Finance Court ) with its seat in Vienna and branches in Feldkirch , Graz , Innsbruck , Klagenfurt , Linz and Salzburg is a federal administrative court specializing in the area of ​​taxes and duties. As an administrative court of first instance, it is on the same level as the state administrative courts and the federal administrative court . It is the successor organization of the Independent Finance Senate (UFS), which was dissolved on January 1, 2014 as part of the 2012 amendment to the administrative jurisdiction . Daniela Moser was appointed President of the Federal Fiscal Court on January 1, 2014. She was President of the Independent Finance Senate until December 31, 2013. The new Vice President Christian Lenneis was also the Regional Senate Chairman of the Vienna branch of the Independent Finance Senate.

Jurisdiction in Austria from January 1, 2014

Legal basis and external organization

The principles of the external organization of the administrative courts are specified in Art. 134 B-VG. Accordingly, the Federal Finance Court consists of a President, a Vice-President and other judges. The President, the Vice-President and the other judges are appointed by the Federal President on the proposal of the Federal Government. With regard to the judges (but not for the President and Vice-President), the Federal Government has to obtain a triple proposal from the Personnel Senate to be formed by the General Assembly. This self-sufficiency is intended to strengthen judicial independence.

As a rule, the Federal Finance Court ( B-VG, Article 135, Paragraph 1, first sentence) performs its judicial activity through a single judge. At the complainant's request, the decision is made by a four-person senate with the assistance of expert lay judges. The competent lay judges are dispatched by the statutory professional bodies, i.e. the chambers, in accordance with Section 4 of the BFGG. However, the chambers of notaries, lawyers and public accountants have no right of posting.

Responsibilities and authority

According to Art. 130 B-VG, the administrative courts decide in particular on

• Complaints about illegality of notifications from the federal tax authorities, in particular the tax offices and customs offices ( notification complaint ),
• Complaints due to a violation of the tax authority's duty to make decisions, i.e. if the tax authority has not issued a decision within the statutory period (usually six months) ( complaint due to default ) and
• Complaints due to the illegal exercise of direct administrative authority and coercive power by the tax authority ( action complaint ).

With the creation of the two-tier administrative jurisdiction, the administrative instance, i.e. the right to appeal against a decision from a tax authority to the respective superordinate authority, was fundamentally abolished.

The division of jurisdiction between the Federal Finance Court and the other administrative courts is based on Art. 131 B-VG. The Federal Finance Court is generally responsible for legal matters in matters of public taxes (with the exception of administrative taxes of the federal government, the states and municipalities) and financial criminal law as well as in other legally stipulated matters, insofar as the matters mentioned are directly handled by the federal tax authorities (in particular the Tax offices and the customs offices) including the federal tax authorities. The jurisdiction of the Federal Finance Court is not conclusively regulated by the Federal Constitution, since the competences according to Art. 131 Para. 4 B-VG can also be regulated differently by law.

The appeal to the Administrative Court as a revision instance goes against the findings of the Federal Finance Court . It is also possible to lodge complaints with the Constitutional Court against the findings of the Federal Finance Court.

Web links

• Website of the Federal Finance Court
• Parliamentary materials on the 2012 amendment to administrative jurisdiction
• Association of Members of the Independent Administrative Senates

Individual evidence

1. ↑ § 2 of the Federal Finance Court Act - BFGG ( BGBl. I No. 14/2013 )
2. ↑ Federal Chancellery Austria; Ordering of top functions within the framework of the amended administrative jurisdiction takes place  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Press release from July 20, 2012)