You must submit the advance VAT return electronically to the tax office by the 10th day after the end of the respective advance return period (month/quarter) at the latest (Section 18 (1) sentence 1 of the German VAT Act - UStG) and pay the calculated tax to the tax office at the same time. As the submission deadlines are set by law, an individual deadline extension can only be considered in justified exceptional cases.
However, the tax office can generally extend the deadline for submitting the advance VAT return and paying the advance payments by one month (so-called permanent deadline extension, Section 46 of the German VAT Implementation Ordinance - UStDV). You must submit a separate application for this. If you are obliged to submit monthly advance returns, the granting of the permanent extension is also dependent on you paying a special advance payment (§ 47 UStDV) to the tax office. If you submit quarterly returns, you will receive the permanent extension without a special advance payment. The electronic form with which you can apply for the permanent extension and, if necessary, register a special advance payment, is available on the ELSTER homepage.
The special advance payment for the current year is one eleventh of the sum of the previous year's VAT advance payments. The special advance payment is taken into account when determining the advance payment for the last advance return period of the tax period for which the deadline extension applies (Section 48 (4) UStDV). Normally, the credit is therefore made in the advance return for the month of December.
Example for calculating the special advance payment:
You have declared advance VAT payments totaling € 39,000 in the advance VAT returns for January to December of the previous year. The special advance payment of € 5,000 was already taken into account in the advance return for the month of December.
The calculation of the special advance payment for the following calendar year is based on the total VAT advance payments for the previous year without deducting the special advance payment made. The net advance payment amount of € 39,000 must therefore be increased by the credited special advance payment of € 5,000. From the assessment basis of € 44,000, a special advance payment of € 4,000 (1/11 of € 44,000) is calculated for the following calendar year
You must apply for the deadline extension by the date on which the advance return for which the deadline extension is to apply for the first time is to be submitted to the tax office.
Example:
You are obliged to submit monthly advance VAT returns and would like to make use of the permanent deadline extension for the first time for the January advance VAT return. You must submit the corresponding application to the tax office by February 10. Due to the monthly submission of advance VAT returns, you must also register and pay a special advance payment to the tax office and no separate approval notice will be issued for the granting of the permanent extension. You can make use of the permanent extension if the tax office does not reject your application. You do not have to repeat an application that has already been submitted every year, as the extension is deemed to have been granted until you no longer wish to make use of it or the tax office revokes the granted permanent extension (Section 46 UStDV). On the other hand, you must register and pay the special advance payment annually by February 10 of the respective year