Tax assessment
A tax assessment is a written or electronic document in which the assessed tax is specified by tax type , period and amount. Also this term, the administrative act by which the taxpayer the document announced to be.
Germany
Taxes are set by administrative act in accordance with § 118 Tax Code (AO) ( § 155 AO). According to Section 157 AO, a tax assessment must be issued in writing or electronically; it must describe the tax assessed by type of tax, period and amount and state who owes the tax . The tax assessment has the task of quantifying the tax claim that has arisen in the abstract according to § 38 AO . These details are prerequisites for an effective assessment - if parts are missing, the tax assessment is void due to the lack of clarity in terms of content .
In addition, a written tax assessment must be accompanied by instructions on which legal remedy is permissible and within which period and with which authority it is to be submitted. A lack of information on legal remedies does not make the decision ineffective, but rather causes the period for legal remedies to not begin to run. The legal remedy is possible within one year ( § 356 AO).
If the legal remedy is not filed within the legal remedy period and there is no possibility of reinstatement in the previous status , the decision becomes final . A (material) final tax assessment is binding, even if it is incorrect. Definitive notices can only be revoked or changed if the requirements for an amendment provision are met ( § 129 , § 164 , §§ 172–177 AO) and the deadline has not yet expired ( § 169 (1) sentence 1 AO). According to a survey by Stiftung Warentest from spring 2000, more than a fifth of the tax assessments issued by the German tax authorities are said to be incorrect. Objection proceedings are often successful: According to the 2016 objection statistics from the Federal Ministry of Finance , they were successful in around 64% of the cases . However, these statistics say nothing about the quality of tax assessments.
Additional administrative files can be linked to a tax assessment, such as the accounting part with which the calculation of the additional payment or reimbursement is made, the setting of interest or the performance requirement with the announcement of the due date. These are separate administrative files that are not part of the tax assessment.
The determination of the tax bases, in the case of income tax primarily the calculation of the income , the allocation to certain types of income and the calculation of the taxable income are dependent parts of the tax assessment and cannot be independently challenged ( Section 157 (2) AO). Tax assessments must be issued by the responsible tax authorities. A tax assessment issued by a non-competent authority is void because it suffers from a particularly serious error and is therefore ineffective .
Tax notices include numerous explanations and information. Because of their technical language, which is often difficult or impossible to understand for laypeople, there are debates as to how far the intelligibility can be increased. A working group from the federal and state finance ministries has been dealing with this topic since 2015.
In Germany the responsible authorities are:
- for federal law regulated excise (for example, flow control , beer control ), the vehicle control , the air traffic control and the import VAT : Hauptzollämter
- for municipal taxes (e.g. trade tax , property tax , dog tax ): the municipal treasurers
- for all other taxes: the tax offices as local state tax authorities
Non-written tax assessments are permitted when determining import duties (customs assessment ) and when using tax stamps and tax stamps.
In addition to tax notices, German tax procedural law also recognizes notices that are equivalent to tax notices and other tax administrative acts such as liability notices . The distinction is important because there are different amendment and correction provisions for tax assessments and other tax administrative acts ( § 129 , § 130 , § 131 , § 164 , § 165 , §§ 172–177 AO).
Switzerland
In Switzerland the terms assessment ruling or tax ruling are used. Assessment orders are issued by the cantonal tax authorities or the Federal Tax Administration , depending on the type of tax . For the various taxes, the rules for the administrative procedures can usually be found in the individual tax laws. The administrative procedure for direct federal tax is regulated in the federal law on direct federal tax , the rules on value added tax can be found in the value added tax law [provider / database missing] and the procedure for cantonal and communal taxes is laid down in the respective cantonal tax laws. The essential principles for income and wealth taxation are harmonized throughout Switzerland. The procedure for direct federal tax is shown below.
In the assessment ruling for direct federal tax, the principles of tax calculation, i.e. the tax factors, and also the tax rates and amounts are announced in writing ( Art. 131 DBG ). This announcement is called the opening . At this point at the latest, the authority must indicate if it deviates from the tax return submitted. If the taxpayer fails to submit a tax return despite a reminder , the authorities will carry out the assessment at their own discretion ( Art. 130 DBG ). So she estimates the tax factors and then calculates the taxes. This form is also known as an assessment ruling.
An objection can be raised against an assessment decision. This must be submitted in writing to the tax authorities within 30 days of the decision being made ( Art. 132 DBG ). You can only proceed against an assessment ruling if you give sufficient reasons for the objection, usually by filing the tax return. The authority decides on the objection by re-setting the tax factors or rejecting it. The decision must be justified and communicated to the taxpayer in writing ( appeal decision Art. 135 DBG ). Against the decision on the objection, the taxpayer can lodge a complaint within 30 days of delivery to the cantonal appeal committee, which is independent of the tax authorities ( Art. 140 DBG ). The latter will also notify the decision in writing. The assessment decision can be changed to the advantage or disadvantage of the taxpayer ( Art. 143 DBG ).
In some cantons, the procedure is planned to be passed on to a further independent cantonal authority ( Art. 145 DBG ). In Zurich, for example, the next instance is the administrative court. The last instance is the Federal Supreme Court ( Art. 146 DBG ).
See also
literature
- Tipke, Kruse: Tax Code and Tax Court Code (comment). Publishing house Dr. Otto Schmidt , Cologne 2007, ISBN 3504221240 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Stiftung Warentest: Tax offices: To err is official. Financial test 3/2000.
- ↑ Statistics on the processing of appeals in the tax offices. (PDF; 2 MB) In: Monthly report of the BMF September 2017. Federal Ministry of Finance, p. 43 , accessed on September 21, 2017 .
- ↑ Eckart Roloff : Enigmatic Post from the Treasury. Few things are as incomprehensible as the annual tax bill. The federal and state governments now want to change this - so far with moderate success. In: Frankfurter Rundschau, August 16, 2016, pp. 12-13.
- ↑ Federal law on direct federal tax (DBG) [provider / database missing]
- ↑ Federal law on the harmonization of direct taxes of the cantons and municipalities (StHG) [provider / database missing]
