tax assessment
noun · Steuerbescheid
Steuerbescheid is the German tax assessment, but it is a formal administrative act, § 155 AO, not a running figure to negotiate. It must be challenged by Einspruch within one month, § 347 and § 355 AO, and if that month passes it becomes bestandskräftig, binding and hard to reopen. Treating a Steuerbescheid as a soft English-style assessment can cost the client the right to object.
Which translation, when
Why
English tax works largely through self-assessment, the taxpayer files and calculates, and the revenue may enquire or amend within set windows. As a rule German tax is assessed by the authority. The Finanzamt fixes the tax by a Steuerbescheid, a Verwaltungsakt, § 155 AO, and the crucial feature for a translator is what follows. The taxpayer who disagrees must lodge an Einspruch, and the deadline is short, one month from notification, § 347 and § 355 AO. Miss it and the Steuerbescheid becomes bestandskräftig, formally final, and can then be corrected only on narrow statutory grounds. So a Steuerbescheid is not a provisional statement to be discussed at leisure but a decision on a clock. Rendering tax assessment as Steuerbescheid is right, but an English reader who carries over the softer feel of a self-assessment, or who reads Steuerbescheid as a mere computation, may let the month run and lose the objection. The word carries a deadline the English term does not announce.
Typical mistakes
- A Steuerbescheid must be challenged by Einspruch within one month, § 355 AO, so treating it as an open figure to negotiate can let the deadline pass and make it bestandskräftig.
- It is a Verwaltungsakt, § 155 AO, not a self-assessment the taxpayer computes, so importing the English self-assessment model misreads who fixes the tax.
- Once final, a Steuerbescheid reopens only on narrow grounds, so assuming it can be revisited freely, as an English estimate might, overstates what is possible.
What matters
A client who has received a German Steuerbescheid and wants to wait and see: rendering it as a tax assessment invites the English assumption that nothing is urgent, when an Einspruch must be lodged within one month, § 347 and § 355 AO, or the assessment becomes final.
What the machine misses
Tax assessment is translated Steuerbescheid, which fits, but the output cannot convey that the German document is a Verwaltungsakt with a one-month objection deadline, § 155 and § 355 AO, after which it is bestandskräftig. The English reader assumes the looser rhythm of self-assessment and may miss that the Steuerbescheid must be challenged within the month or it stands, so a translated assessment hides the clock the German instrument runs on.
Examples
| to issue a tax assessment | einen Steuerbescheid erlassen |
| to object to the assessment | gegen den Steuerbescheid Einspruch einlegen |
| the assessment has become final | der Steuerbescheid ist bestandskräftig |