Module 121 min2727 wordsFree — no account
The tax audit: audit order, cooperation, data access and closing
The module’s worked examples, then cases to attempt before revealing their solution · 2 sections · 239 words · 3 min
Worked example
The ceiling of the delay penalty
Anyone who never meets a qualified request for cooperation risks at most 150 calendar days at 75 €, which is 11,250 € in total. That total is calculated from the two statutory values and does not appear as such in the statute. A surcharge may be added, and the audit still ends with estimates wherever records are missing.
Practical case
How large is the delay penalty?
A trading GmbH was notified of an audit order on 2 March 2026. A qualified request for cooperation with an instruction on remedies asks for one year's till receipts and is deemed notified on Tuesday, 15 September 2026. The GmbH delivers the records in full on Tuesday, 27 October 2026. It does not claim any excuse. What delay penalty must be imposed?
Hint: First establish whether the request was permissible in time, then the last day of the one-month period, and count the full calendar days up to and including the day of compliance.
Show the solution
The request was permissible, because more than six months had passed since the order was notified on 2 March (§ 200a(1) sentence 1 AO). The one-month period ends at the end of 15 October 2026, a Thursday. The delay begins on 16 October and ends at the end of 27 October, the day of full compliance (§ 200a(2) sentence 5 AO). That makes twelve full calendar days at 75 € each, so 900 €.
Answer: 900 €
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