The tax assessment is there and looks completely different from your calculations? Then you should report possible errors to the tax office. The crux of the matter is the objection.
Incorrect tax return submitted? This also has an impact on the tax assessment. For example, anyone who accidentally enters income that is too high will automatically have to pay more taxes. But can mistakes still be corrected once the tax assessment has been issued?
Yes, says Daniela Karbe-Gessler from the Taxpayers’ Association. According to the law, tax assessments must be canceled or changed if the taxpayer made typographical or calculation errors when preparing the tax return – and the tax office therefore received incorrect information. But there are limits.
In a specific case (Az.: 9 K 203/21), the Lower Saxony finance court had to rule on incorrect data entry in the tax return: A jointly assessed married couple, who, among other things, earned income from renting and leasing, had for the 2018 income tax return due to a Inadvertently stated the higher income from the 2017 tax year due to a copying error.
After the tax assessment was final, the couple applied for the correction of the assessment in the form of an objection. The tax office refused. The Finance Court followed suit and also rejected the correction of the decision.
Spelling mistakes within the meaning of the law are in particular spelling mistakes, word mix-ups or calculation errors. The judges ruled that errors in the transmission of data and when entering the electronic tax return were not expressly included in the text of the law.
Daniela Karbe-Gessler recommends that anyone who has not made any data transmission errors in their tax return, but made typing or calculation errors, which has caused the authorities to set higher taxes, should continue to apply to their responsible tax office for a correction in the future.
(This article was first published on Wednesday, March 01, 2023.)
