Taxpayers in court: kita-essen could also be affected

Taxpayers in court School meals as a household service?

86.6 days: This is how long it takes on average for Germany’s slowest tax office to process a tax return. The portal "Compact income tax" has measured and compared the processing times of German tax offices. The last place goes to a city in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which portal not mentioned – probably so as not to unnecessarily expose the employees concerned. On average, all German tax offices took 52.5 days to process. With the fastest officials, however, this was almost twice as fast. Digitalpass customers can download a tax advisor here.

Oh you beautiful Elbphilharmonie. The city-state of Hamburg needs billions of taxpayers’ money to finally complete the controversial concert hall on the Elbe in October 2016. This is probably why the officials are fix when it comes to collecting the money. On average, the tax office in Hamburg-Haburg needed 3 – 7 Days, to process a tax return. The other tax offices in the Hanseatic city also do an exemplary job: In a comparison of the federal states, Hamburg is in first place with a processing time of 45 days on average.

The Fürth branch of the tax office in Bensheim is slightly faster. Here, the processing after measurements of "income tax compact" only took 36.8 days. Bensheim is the only Hessian place in the top 20 – compared to the rest of the country, Hessen is in twelfth place with a duration of 58.1 days.

Bad Bentheim not only shines with the castle of the same name, but also with the speedy processing of tax returns: 36.7 days it took in the test. This puts the tax office of the 15,000-inhabitant community in 18th place.

Erkelenz in North Rhine-Westphalia is located on the northern edge of Cologne Bay, halfway between the Lower Rhine and Niedermaas. By 2045, more than 5000 people from ten localities had to be relocated here because of the nearby lignite mine. The processing of tax returns works much faster – namely on average after 36.6 days.

It works not only with the asparagus in Schrobenhausen – but also with the finance officials. On average, they only need it 36.3 days, to process a tax return. There is 15th place in the ranking. That applies also for the tax office in .

. Hamburg-Nord, that too 36.3 days needed. Incidentally, in a state comparison, the nearby Bremen is the country in which tax officials process tax returns slowly – namely, only after 80.1 days.

The Finanzgericht Sachsen had not been able to follow this view (file number: 6 K 1546/13). First of all, the judges justified this with the fact that expenses for meals for children were already covered the child allowance were compensated. The meals for the children at school were also not a service that was provided in direct spatial connection with the plaintiff’s household. The meals for the children in the school are also functionally not assigned to the plaintiff’s household – after all, they explicitly concern the provision of food to the children outside the home and thus not the plaintiff’s household.

The court was so sure of its case that it saw no reason to admit the revision to the Federal Fiscal Court. Therefore, the complaining father went a different way: He has lodged an application for non-admission with the Federal Fiscal Court (Az .: III B 20/16).

Anyone who prepares their income tax return for 2016 – and is obliged to submit it – must submit it by May 31, 2017. If you need more time, you can apply to the tax office to extend the deadline. If a tax advisor or a wage tax relief association completes the tax return, the period ends on December 31, 2017.

So that the tax office can process the tax return quickly and does not have to ask questions, taxpayers should send receipts for all recoveries. In order to justify the advertising costs, it can be helpful to state the profession practiced as precisely as possible.

If you do your own tax return, you should definitely follow the instructions (from there on the tax form > income tax > Income Tax 2016 click), which the Federal Ministry of Finance publishes in its form catalog. The tax office assumes that the taxpayer has read these instructions carefully.

In order to be able to check the tax assessment later, taxpayers should keep a copy of their tax return – either printed or saved as a file.

Before taxpayers make their declaration to the tax office, they should find out about ongoing tax law procedures. The case law can often be applied to personal cases. Even if a matter has not yet been finally clarified, it can be worthwhile to claim the expenses in the tax return. If the outcome of the process is positive, there is still a chance of a tax refund even after many years.

Since 2012, many more taxpayers have been required to submit their tax returns electronically. Entrepreneurs have to submit almost all tax returns for the 2011 assessment period electronically to the tax office. This obligation does not apply to employees who have no so-called earnings.

Although experts estimate the chances of success at the Federal Fiscal Court rather small, affected parents should, in comparable cases, claim the costs of school meals for their children as a household service. You can lodge an objection to negative decisions, referring to the legal dispute, and request that the proceedings be suspended.

Practical tip:

Lunch is also part of the daily program in daycare centers – and parents have so far not been able to claim these costs for tax purposes. Affected mothers and fathers can, with reference to the procedure, try to include these expenses as a household service in the tax return.

Taxpayers in court School meals as a household service?

Practical tip:

RELATED ITEMS