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Extension of time limit for lodging appeals if no reference has been made to lodging appeals electronically

After receipt of notification of an administrative order there is normally one month’s time to appeal against this same administrative order (e.g. tax assessment notice). In the following, we highlight the circumstances under which this time limit would be extended.

An extension by one year to the time limit for lodging appeals would come about if the issuing authority had failed to include advice on legal remedies in the administrative order being appealed against, or if that advice had been incorrect. Correct advice would include the authority with which the appeal should be lodged and the rules that apply for calculating the time limit. On that point, the Federal Fiscal Court, in a ruling from 28.4.2020 (case reference: VI R 41/17), decided that advice on legal remedies would be incorrect and would trigger a one-year time limit for lodging appeals if it did not make reference to the option of lodging appeals electronically. The court justified this view by pointing out that, since 1.8.2013, it has been explicitly provided for in the German Fiscal Code that it is also possible to lodge appeals electronically. Since then, advice on legal remedies thus also has to make reference to this method – expressly permitted by law – for lodging appeals.

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