Finance Court (Germany)

The Tax Court is a special court specialist. It is in Germany, the Court of First Instance for the legal process in the fiscal court disputes. The judges rule on legal disputes between taxpayers and tax authorities ( tax offices, customs, family funds and German Federal Pension Insurance in pension bonus things ( § 98 Income Tax Act ) ). The structure of the financial jurisdiction is different from that of the other jurisdictions in two stages.

A citizen is free to put before the tax courts against actions of the tax authorities in tax and customs matters to the military. The punishment of tax evaders is not one of the tasks of the tax courts. The Tax Court is not a " long arm " of financial management. It is - like any other court also - subject to independent and subject only to the law.

The Tax Court is divided as the Upper Court of the country in Senate. A Senate comprises three professional judges and - of two honorary judges - at the hearing. The Senate may decide, in a simple thing that a professional judge alone as a single judge decides ( § 6 and § 79a FGO ).

The court will consider whether the applicant fulfills all formalities (property, judgment conditions ) and whether his claim for relief is justified. The court is not bound by what is presented by the plaintiff or the tax authority. Rather, it determines all the facts and the law of its own motion. The parties shall be granted a hearing. Plaintiff and defendant tax authority will have the opportunity to comment on all the points that should be made ​​the basis of the court decision. When the applicant has complied with all the formalities and the plaintiff's claim is entitled to the court the action is held.

Appeals against the judgments of the financial court there only because of the two-stage structure of the German Financial Court jurisdiction as the only acceptable appeal, the appeal to the Federal Fiscal Court (BFH ). If they have not been granted, the leave to appeal is allowed. Against other decisions of the Financial Court is partly the possibility of appeal to the BFH.

In North Rhine -Westphalia there are three fiscal courts, two in Bavaria. Berlin and Brandenburg have since 1 January 2007, a joint financial court in Cottbus. In the other Länder have a financial court exists. In total, there are 18 Tax Court.

To relieve the judges have some tax courts on so-called court custom validators for fact-finding.