Tax deferrals for companies in times of Corona

On 19 March 2020, the Fe­deral Mi­nis­try of Fi­nance (BMF) publis­hed the fol­lo­wing gui­de­lines for the de­fer­ral of ta­xes to sup­port com­pa­nies in the corona cri­sis:

• „Tax­pay­ers who are di­rectly and not in­con­side­ra­bly af­fec­ted by the eco­no­mic con­se­quen­ces of the coro­na­vi­rus may sub­mit ap­pli­ca­ti­ons for de­fer­ral of ta­xes al­re­ady due or be­com­ing due by 31 De­cem­ber 2020. This ap­plies to in­come tax, cor­po­rate in­come tax and va­lue ad­ded tax. The tax of­fices are re­qui­red to grant ap­pli­ca­ti­ons even if the da­mage cau­sed by the coro­na­vi­rus can­not be pro­ven in de­tail in terms of va­lue. No high de­mands are to be made on the con­di­ti­ons/re­qui­re­ments/ tax de­fer­ral.
• As a rule, the tax of­fices waive de­fer­ral in­te­rest.
• Ap­pli­ca­ti­ons for de­fer­ral of ta­xes due af­ter 31 De­cem­ber 2020 must be ju­sti­fied.

Se­veral fe­deral sta­tes have al­re­ady pro­vi­ded ap­pli­ca­tion forms. Other­wise, ac­cor­ding to the of­fi­cial press re­leases, ap­pli­ca­ti­ons should be made in wri­ting and hand­led un­bu­reau­cra­ti­cally. It should be no­ted that the ap­pli­ca­tion must also in­clude a de­scrip­tion of the in­di­vi­dual eco­no­mic ef­fects of the coro­na­vi­rus on the com­pany con­cer­ned. Even if the tax aut­ho­ri­ties are in­struc­ted not to place high de­mands on this proof, it is ne­vert­he­less in­dis­pens­able in or­der to do­cu­ment the di­rect and not in­si­gni­fi­cant im­pact of the corona cri­sis.

Note

For wi­th­hol­ding ta­xes, such as in­come tax and ca­pi­tal gains tax, a tax de­fer­ral is in prin­ci­ple not en­vi­sa­ged. Ac­cor­ding to re­ports, the fi­nance mi­nis­tries of the fe­deral sta­tes, in coor­di­na­tion with the Fe­deral Mi­nis­try of Fi­nance, are working on a gui­de­line for the tre­at­ment of in­come tax, which is ex­pec­ted to be publis­hed shortly. Howe­ver, it may al­re­ady be pos­si­ble to ob­tain a sus­pen­sion of exe­cu­tion.

Also publis­hed on 19 March 2020 were iden­ti­cal de­crees of the su­preme tax aut­ho­ri­ties of the fe­deral sta­tes on ac­com­pany­ing trade tax mea­su­res. Ap­pli­ca­ti­ons for de­fer­ral of trade tax must be sub­mit­ted to the mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ties re­spon­si­ble for trade tax, and me­rely to the tax of­fice in ca­ses where the re­spon­si­bi­lity for trade tax does not lie with the mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ties (this ap­plies in par­ti­cu­lar to city sta­tes).