Most letters from the Finanzamt are one of a handful of types, and only some of them start a clock. A tax assessment (Steuerbescheid) gives you one month to object and a date to pay. A question or a request for documents carries a date the Finanzamt chose, which it can extend if you ask before it passes. A reminder to file comes before an enforcement fine (Zwangsgeld) or an estimated assessment. Unpaid tax costs 1% a month, and the Finanzamt can freeze a bank account without going to court. The table below sorts them by deadline.
On this page
1. Which letters carry a deadline
The German heading near the top usually tells you the type. The decisive part is often at the very end: if the letter closes with instructions on how to object (Rechtsbehelfsbelehrung), it is a formal decision, and you have one month to file an Einspruch against it.
| Letter | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Bescheid für [Jahr] über Einkommensteuer (or Umsatzsteuer, Gewerbesteuer…) The tax assessment | One month to object; a payment date |
| Steuerbescheid based on Schätzung Assessment on figures the Finanzamt estimated | One month to object; a payment date |
| Vorauszahlungsbescheid Advance payments for the current year | Payment dates; one month to object |
| Questions, Anforderung von Unterlagen Request for information or receipts | The date in the letter, which can be extended |
| Erinnerung Reminder to file a return | The new date in the letter |
| Androhung eines Zwangsgeldes Threat of a fine of a stated amount | The date in the letter; one month to object |
| Festsetzung eines Zwangsgeldes The fine itself | A payment date; one month to object |
| Mahnung Payment reminder | Usually one week |
| Pfändungs- und Einziehungsverfügung Enforcement, for example on a bank account | Takes effect at once; one month to object |
| Prüfungsanordnung Tax audit order | A start date; one month to object |
| Notices such as your new tax number (see the tax number guide), or confirmation that a letter arrived Information | None; keep it with your tax papers |
The month to object runs from notification. For a letter posted within Germany that is the fourth day after posting, or the next working day if that day is a weekend or public holiday (§ 122(2) AO). The Einspruch guide explains the counting, with an example and a letter to copy.
2. The Steuerbescheid and its notes
A Bescheid has to state the tax, its amount and who owes it, and tell you how to object (§ 157 AO). In practice it has four parts worth reading in this order:
- The calculation (Abrechnung). The tax set for the year, minus what was already withheld (wage tax) and what you paid in advance, gives the balance: a refund, or a sum to pay. For income tax, that sum is due one month after notification (any prepayments you hadn't paid, at once); a refund is paid out after notification (§ 36(4) EStG).
- The explanations (Erläuterungen). Where the Finanzamt departed from your return, it says so here. This is where most disagreements start.
- The notes (Nebenbestimmungen). Two matter most, below.
- The instructions (Rechtsbehelfsbelehrung) at the end: one month to object, and to which Finanzamt.
"Unter dem Vorbehalt der Nachprüfung" (subject to review) means the whole assessment stays open. Either side can change it, in either direction, until the note is lifted or the assessment period ends (§ 164 AO). That period is normally four years, starting at the end of the year in which the return was filed (§§ 169, 170 AO). A Bescheid setting advance payments is always subject to review.
"Vorläufig" (provisional) is narrower. Only the points the Bescheid names stay open, typically because a court case on them is pending. Once the uncertainty is resolved, the Finanzamt changes the Bescheid on those points where the outcome requires it (§ 165 AO). Everything else becomes final after the month like any other Bescheid.
Interest (Zinsen). If the Bescheid comes late, back tax and refunds carry interest of 0.15% a month, starting 15 months after the end of the tax year (§ 233a, § 238(1a) AO): from 1 April 2027 for 2025. For 2024 a transitional rule moves the start to 17 months, 1 June 2026 (Art. 97 § 36 EGAO).
An income tax Bescheid often comes with new advance payments for the following quarters; the guide to tax prepayments explains them.
3. Questions and requests for documents
You are obliged to help the Finanzamt establish the facts: to answer its questions and to show receipts, contracts and records when asked (§§ 90, 93, 97 AO). Such letters set a date. It is the Finanzamt's own date, so it can be extended, even after it has passed (§ 109 AO); asking before it passes, with a reason, is the usual way.
A special kind of query is the hearing letter (Anhörung): the Finanzamt intends to depart substantially from your return to your disadvantage and gives you the chance to comment first (§ 91 AO). Normally there is no such letter where it simply replaces your figures with data that employers, insurers or others reported electronically; the Bescheid then has to point out the difference.
If nobody answers, the Finanzamt decides on what it has, and where you don't explain your figures it can estimate them (§ 162(2) AO). Your answers become part of the file. What to send, and how to put it, is a common reason people bring in a Steuerberater at this stage.
4. Reminders, Zwangsgeld and estimated assessments
If a return is due and doesn't arrive, a sequence of letters follows. Returns for 2025 prepared without a Steuerberater were due on 31 July 2026, so reminders for 2025 can arrive any time now; the guide to tax return deadlines has the other dates. Once the Finanzamt asks you to file, you have to, even if you would not otherwise have had to (§ 149(1) AO).
- Reminder (Erinnerung). Sets a new date. It may already contain the threat of a fine described next.
- Threat of a fine (Androhung eines Zwangsgeldes). Must be in writing, name a specific amount and give a reasonable deadline (§ 332 AO).
- The fine (Festsetzung eines Zwangsgeldes) if that deadline passes (§ 333 AO). Each fine can be up to 25,000 euros (§ 329 AO). Its purpose is to get the return, not to punish: once you file, the Finanzamt has to stop enforcing it (§ 335 AO).
Instead of, or as well as, a fine, the Finanzamt can estimate your income and issue a Bescheid on that basis (Schätzung, § 162 AO). An estimated Bescheid is a real one: the tax is payable on the date shown, and the month to object runs. It also doesn't end the duty to file (§ 149(1) AO).
What happens to a return filed afterwards depends on the notes. Where the Finanzamt expects a return to follow, it is meant to issue the estimate subject to review, and the return can then lead to a change (AEAO zu § 162). Without that note, the estimate becomes final after a month, and a late return on its own may not reopen it. This is the letter where the month matters most.
5. The late-filing surcharge
A return filed late can cost a Verspätungszuschlag (§ 152 AO). It usually appears as an extra line in the Bescheid, so you challenge it with an Einspruch against the Bescheid.
- When it can be charged. For any return filed after its deadline, unless you show the delay was excusable.
- When it must be charged. For an annual return filed more than 14 months after the end of the year: for 2025, after the end of February 2027. For 2024 a transitional rule makes it 16 months, so after 30 April 2026 (Art. 97 § 36 EGAO). Not if the Finanzamt extended the deadline, or if no tax is left to pay beyond what was withheld and prepaid. Even then the Finanzamt can still charge one at its discretion, especially for repeated lateness.
- How much. 0.25% of the tax still to pay after prepayments and wage tax, for each month or part-month of delay, but at least 25 euros a month, and never more than 25,000 euros.
An example. A return is five months late and leaves 4,000 euros to pay. 0.25% is 10 euros a month, below the minimum, so the surcharge is 5 × 25 = 125 euros. With 20,000 euros to pay it would be 5 × 50 = 250 euros. For a return never filed, the months count up to the first Bescheid, which is often the estimate.
6. Paying late: Säumniszuschlag and payment reminders
Tax not paid by its due date costs a late-payment charge (Säumniszuschlag) of 1% for each month or part-month, on the unpaid amount rounded down to a multiple of 50 euros (§ 240 AO). So 1,230 euros paid two weeks late cost 12 euros; paid five weeks late, 24 euros.
- No separate letter. The charge arises by law; there is no Bescheid for it (§ 218(1) AO). It shows up on account statements and reminders.
- Three days' grace for transfers, but not for cash or cheques. A transfer counts on the day it is credited to the Finanzamt's account; with a SEPA direct debit mandate, on the due date (§ 224(2) AO).
- It stays even if the Bescheid is later reduced, so an Einspruch alone does not stop it (the Einspruch guide covers suspending payment).
The payment reminder (Mahnung) normally gives one week before enforcement starts (§ 259 AO). If you cannot pay, there are three tools, usually on application:
- Deferral (Stundung) where paying now would be a considerable hardship and the claim isn't put at risk, usually against security (§ 222 AO), with interest of 0.5% a month (§ 234, 238 AO).
- Instalments agreed with the enforcement office, which can hold back enforcement where it would be unfair (§ 258 AO).
- Waiver of the late-payment charges (§ 227 AO). The tax administration considers it for a punctual payer who slipped once, and, as a rule only for half, for someone who genuinely could not pay (AEAO zu § 240).
7. Enforcement
The Finanzamt does not need a court. It enforces its own claims (§ 249 AO) once the tax is due, you have been asked to pay (usually in the Bescheid itself), and at least a week has passed (§ 254 AO).
The most common step is an order to your bank, or to anyone else who owes you money, such as an employer or a client: the Pfändungs- und Einziehungsverfügung. Once it is served on the bank, the bank may no longer pay out to you from the account (§ 309 AO). You are informed that it was served.
You can object to an enforcement measure within a month, but not to argue that the tax itself is wrong; that belongs in an Einspruch against the Bescheid (§ 256 AO). The practical route is usually to contact the enforcement office (Vollstreckungsstelle) named on the letter at once: it can agree instalments and lift or limit a measure.
8. A tax audit order
A Prüfungsanordnung announces a tax audit (Außenprüfung, often called a Betriebsprüfung), usually of a business. It sets out what will be audited, the expected start date and the auditors' names, and has to arrive a reasonable time before the start (§§ 196, 197 AO). It can also ask for records within a set period. The start can be moved on application for important reasons, and the order itself can be challenged within a month. It is the letter most people take straight to a Steuerberater.
9. Emails that only look like the Finanzamt
Real Bescheide arrive by post or in your ELSTER mailbox. By email, the tax administration sends only notifications: never tax data or bills as attachments, never news of a refund or a payment in the email itself, and never a request for your tax number, bank details or PIN (ELSTER security notice). Fake emails in the name of ELSTER, the Finanzamt or the Federal Central Tax Office come in waves; the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) shows known examples (bzst.de). If in doubt, call the Finanzamt on the number from its official website, not one from the email.
When a letter arrives
- Note the date on the letter, and keep the envelope.
- Find the type from the heading, and read the end: instructions on objecting mean one month.
- Note any payment date separately. Objecting doesn't move it.
- Ask for more time before a date the Finanzamt set has passed, not after.
- Have it checked by a Steuerberater if it is an estimate, a fine, an audit order or enforcement, or if the amounts matter to you.