Date of tax liability accrual

General information

A distinction is made between the imputed taxation ("Taxation after agreed charges") and the actual taxation ("Taxation after collected charges").

Imputed taxation

Imputed taxation is the most common. Services provided in one month form the basis. Tax liability arises at the end of the month in which the delivery or other service took place. For accounting in a later month, tax liability accrual is postponed by no more than one month.

Where an entrepreneur, who may also be a foreign entrepreneur, performs a service or works delivery within the country and transfers the tax liability to the recipient of the service, tax liability accrues at the end of the month in which the service in question was provided. Postponement by another month as a result of later accounting is not possible in this case.

It is entirely possible that VAT must be paid to the tax office even where the business partner in question still owes the invoice amount.

Example

Actual taxation

In this case, tax liability arises at the end of the month in which payment is made, irrespective of the time of delivery or other service or accounting. This also applies to advance payments.

This manner of taxation is intended for:

• farmers and forest managers who are not required to keep accounts and traders, as well as
• freelancers (irrespective of their turnover amount and legal form),
• energy generation and waste disposal entrepreneurs and
• all other entrepreneurs (e.g. landlords), whose total income in one of the previous two years does not exceed 110,000 Euro.

Upon request, imputed taxation can also be chosen instead of actual taxation.

Legal bases

• Actual taxation: section 17 paragraphs 1, 2 of the Umsatzsteuergesetz (UStG)
• Imputed taxation: section 19 paragraph 2 (1a) of the UStG