Changes to German postal services with implications for tax-related postal letter communications
As at 1.1.2025, fundamental revisions have been made to the German Postal Act and it has been adapted to the needs of an increasingly digital society. However, this has also resulted in important changes to tax legislation.
Impact of the legal fiction of notification in the case of tax assessment notices
The Postal Act (Postgesetz, PostG) was amended by the so-called Act on the Modernisation of Postal Law (Postrechtsmodernisierungsgesetz, PostModG) with effect from 1.1.2025. This was the response of German lawmakers to, among other things, the waning importance of sending letters as a fast means of communication. In particular, the transit time requirements for letters have been changed. Up to now, after posting, letters had to reach the addressee, on an annual average, on the second working day with a probability of 95% and on the third working day with a probability of 99%. Since the start of the year, this requirement has been extended by one day and now has to be fulfilled for the third or fourth working day after mailing.
In view of this transit time extension, it was necessary to likewise adjust the legal presumption of the notification of tax assessment notices and other administrative documents. Insofar as these notices or documents were sent via an ordinary letter, up to now, there was a (rebuttable) presumption that on the third day after mailing they would have reached the addressees. All tax assessment notices and administrative documents sent after 31.12.2024 will now be considered to have been made known on the fourth day after mailing. Consequently, the previous legal fiction of three days will become the legal fiction of four days. This will also apply to all administrative documents that are sent or made available by electronic means. Deadlines for appeals (such as an objection and an opposition) remain unaffected.
Important change in the event that an item of correspondence is undeliverable
If there is no contrary instruction from the sender or the addressee, if an item of correspondence is undeliverable then, if possible, it will be delivered to a substitute recipient. The latter in this sense, according to Section 3 no. 9 PostG, can be “a person present in the rooms of the addressee as well as a direct neighbour of the addressee for a postal item”. As a result, the risk that letters will go ‘astray’ more frequently in the future - especially in multi-family houses and larger office buildings - is likely to be considerably higher.
