Administrative Assistance for Direct Taxes
German tax offices claim and provide international administrative assistance through the exchange of information. This happens in cases when the tax authorities cannot adequately clarify cross-border circumstances in the context of the assessment of taxes, since they are limited to their own national territory when it comes to their inquiries.
The international exchange of information ensures uniform and fair competitive taxation and also serves to clarify circumstances for the benefit of the taxpayer.
Administrative assistance through the exchange of information can be grouped in two areas: the automatic exchange of information and the non-automatic exchange of information. The non-automatic exchange of information includes the exchange of information upon request as well as the spontaneous exchange of information.
The following information relates to the exchange of information upon request as well as the spontaneous exchange of information.
Legal Bases
The legal bases of international administrative assistance in tax matters through the exchange of information stem from:
- Section 117 of the Abgabenordnung (AO – German Fiscal Code)
- EU Directive 2011/16/EU (EU Administrative Assistance Directive)
- Law on conducting mutual administrative assistance in tax matters between Member States of the European Union (EU Mutual Administrative Assistance Act), which was implemented in domestic law using its Directive 2011/16/EU, BGBl. I 2013 page 1809
- Law on the convention on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters (BGBl. II 2015 pages 966 et seq.) and Annexes A to C as well as the declarations and reserves on the convention.
- Agreement on the elimination of double taxation (DTA – double taxation agreement)
- Agreement on legal and administrative assistance and the exchange of information (TIEA – tax information exchange agreements)
The double taxation agreements currently concluded by Germany and the agreements in the field of legal and administrative assistance and the exchange of information can be viewed on the website of the Federal Ministry of Finance.
Leaflet
The administrative assistance leaflet was updated on 1 January 2019.
Forms
Note
The information available for download below is intended for use exclusively by domestic tax authorities that operate within the scope of the international exchange of information.
You can find forms on international administrative assistance through exchange of information for direct taxes here. In order to use these offline forms (ffwp files), you need the FormsForWeb Filler software. FFW Filler is distributed at no charge and can be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website (Lucom GmbH company) an unlimited number of times.
The annexes/forms contained in the Zip-file are listed in the following table.
| Administrative assistance leaflet (updated 1 January 2019) | Brief Description |
|---|---|
| Annex 2a | Request to a foreign country/territory for a TIEA information agreement |
| Annex 2aa | TIEA Request for the Pricipality of Liechtenstein |
| Annex 2b | Group request to a foreign country/ foreign territory |
| Annex 2c | Form for the spontaneous exchange of information on "Tax Rulings" according to BEPS action point 5 |
| Annex 2d | Request to a foreign country on the tax-based exchange of information on taxes and insurance premiums (German, English, French) |
| Annex 2e | Transmission letter Request /Reply /Notification /Spontaneous information to/for a foreign country/a foreign territory Transmission letter for the purposes of a request in tax matters to a foreign country/territory (except for EU Member States) |
| Annex 2f | Hearing |
| Annex 2g | Hearing - file sheet for the exercise of discretion according to § 117 paragraph 4 sentence 3 AO |
| Annex 3 | Unofficial consolidated version of the Convention (EN - FR - DE) |
| Annex 4 | Rules on business channels and delegation in accordance with § 3 para. 6 ZFdG (International Administrative and Legal Assistance); Update (BMF letter of 16 August 2017, - III B 2 - Z 4601/16/10019 - 2017/0058975 -) |
Municipalities and Municipality Associations
The standard EU forms, program files and the e-learning module can be downloaded by municipalities and municipality associations via the following links, after entering the required password. It is always a ZIP file.
The standard EU forms, program files and the e-learning module are the property of the EU Commission. The EU Commission reserves all rights.
Please note that only municipalities and municipality associates are authorized to download.
You can obtain the password for the download from the contact indicated below.
Contact
Tax authorities and municipalities or municipality associations can reach the administrative assistance area for direct taxes (except recovery/notification) at the following e-mail address: de.sia@bzst.bund.de
