The Tax Code (AO) fabricates a notification of an administrative act after a certain time has elapsed. The most famous fiction here is the 3-day fiction. According to this, a tax notice was previously announced after 3 days after delivery to the post office. The Postal Law Modernization Act (PostModG) adopted on 13.06.2024 has far-reaching consequences. It requires new calculations to announce tax rulings from 2025. In the following, we describe which innovations you need to adjust to.

1. New rules for the announcement of tax rulings from 2025 – Introduction

In principle, it can be said that the PostModG has a significant influence on the fiction of disclosure with regard to the deadline calculation. So far, at least 80% of the letters submitted today must be delivered on the next working day and 95% on the day after. From 01.01.2025, this will change fundamentally, because the PostModG in future 95 % of letters must be delivered only on the third working day and 99 % on the fourth day after submission. Therefore, it cannot be guaranteed that a letter has actually been received by the recipient on the third day after the insertion. Thus, the disclosure fiction according to § 122 paragraph 2 no. 2 AO is no longer tenable. Therefore, an amended version of § 122 AO applies from 01.01.2025.

2. The previous legal situation regarding the notification of tax rulings before 2025

The old legal situation contains the 3-day period in three different places. On the one hand in § 122 paragraph 2 no. 2 AO in the postal mailing, on the other hand in the case of electronic mailing according to § 122 paragraph 2a AO. In addition, this can be found in § 122a (4) AO. (An administrative act provided for retrieval: Elster)

All legal norms include a deadline calculation with a deadline length of 3 days. In this case, an event is decisive for all. In this case, it is the sending of the tax assessment, i.e. an administrative act. Thus, the period begins with the expiry of the day of dispatch. So, for example, the tax office sends an income tax notice on Tuesday the 10.12.2024. Accordingly, according to the old legal situation, the decision is deemed to be announced on Friday, 13.12.2024, i.e. on 14.12.2024. The deadline is therefore at the end of Friday. This applies identically to all the standards concerned.

3. The new legal situation for the announcement of tax rulings from 2025

Due to the adoption of the Postmodernization Act, the legislature had to adapt the legal norms. As of 01.01.2025, amended standards have therefore entered into force. The 3-day period was changed to a 4-day period. This would have far-reaching consequences on our example before. An administrative act sent on Tuesday, 10.12.2024, would therefore only be considered announced after 4 days. In this case, the deadline would in principle be given upon expiry of 14.12.2024. However, since this would be a Saturday and a deadline must not end on a Saturday, the deadline falls on the expiry of the following working day. So the deadline would be set here with the expiration of 16.12.2024. Accordingly, the decision would not be considered as announced until 17.12.2024. In the present example, the deviation of the time limit by one day results in a deviation of the notification by 3 days.

However, this example is purely hypothetical, because for 2024 the previous fiction with a deadline of 3 days was still valid. The original example given in Chapter 2 thus corresponds to the actual legal situation at that time.

4. effects of the change of law

The disclosure is relevant for many deadlines, such as annual sales tax, income tax and corporate tax. In addition, this has an influence on the opposition period and (indirectly) period for bringing an action.

Extending the 3-day period to a 4-day period thus changes many dates and deadlines that are linked to the notification of tax notices. This has advantages rather than disadvantages for taxpayers, since more time is available for fulfilling the tax obligations.

Similarly, the new regulation on the disclosure of tax notices, which has been in force since 2025, also benefits tax consultancy firms and their employees. In recent years, their workload has increased to some extent, so that the amended regulation proves to be a small compensation.

Only for the participants of this year's and possibly the two subsequent tax advisor examinations, the new regulation will cause little pleasure, as they now have to be prepared for both the previous and the new legal situation. This is true at least until the old regulation for the development of facts and tasks will have served out.