Penalty notice
The penalty notice was after the Reich Tax Code (RAO 1919) a way of customs and tax authorities minor tax and customs offenses, if a submission negotiating with the accused did not materialize, a fine and the mandatory additional penalties such as confiscation and compensation to punish. Responsible were financial and customs offices .
The accused had the right to appeal against the penalty notice by applying for a judicial decision. If he did not make use of this, the penalty notice became legally binding after the deadline and was equivalent to a judicial judgment. The sentence had to be entered in the criminal record and was considered a criminal record . If an application for a judicial decision was made, the penalty notice was given the status of a bill of indictment for which the tax office or the main customs office had to represent in court, making the procedure , which was previously protected by tax secrecy , public. The public prosecutor was entitled to take the case. In this case, the administration was given the function of a joint plaintiff with its own right of application, as in all criminal tax proceedings.
Since the Basic Law only allows punishments by the judge (Art. 92 half-par. 1 GG), from around 1960 the customs and tax authorities regularly refrained from this measure. The criminal powers of the tax offices (§§ 410, 412 I RAO 1919; §§ 445, 447 I RAO 1931) were published by the Federal Constitutional Court with a judgment of June 6, 1967 (file number 2 BvR 375, 53/60, 18/65 in BVerfGE 22, 49 = NJW 1967, 1219 ff.) declared unconstitutional. Since then, if there is sufficient suspicion in accordance with Section 400 AO, the tax offices can request the court to issue a penalty order or submit the files to the public prosecutor's office.
In Austria administrative bodies for crimes committed administrative offenses under the Administrative Penal Act 1991 notice issued administrative penalties express ( penal ). Such notices are also called penalty notices.
