BZSt moves § 50c withholding-tax relief to new portal form in December

The Bundeszentralamt für Steuern is replacing the form for § 50c relief from German withholding tax under § 50a EStGBzst: from 7 December 2026 a new form will be available exclusively in the new BZSt online.portalBzst. Existing login certificates keep working in the new portalBzst, but drafts created with the old form cannot be reused after the switchBzst.

The change affects relief applications — refund or exemption — filed with the BZSt by foreign artists, athletes, licensors and supervisory-board members, the creditors of remuneration subject to limited tax liability under § 49 EStG and taxed through the withholding procedure of § 50a EStG.Bzst Where a double taxation treaty provides full or partial exemption from the withholding tax on German-source income, the creditor can apply to the BZSt for relief from the German withholding taxBzst.

The BZSt is currently migrating from the previous online portal (BOP) to the new BZSt online.portal, and the new § 50c form arrives as part of that migration. Anyone preparing an application now should expect to file on the new form in the new portal from 7 December 2026Bzst, and should not rely on carrying over a draft started in the old form.

Two routes lead to relief, and the form covers both.Bzst Where the treaty already blocks taxation of the income, the payer need not withhold at all if the BZSt has certified this to the creditor on application — the FreistellungsbescheinigungGesetze IM Internet — which runs for at most five years from receipt of the applicationGesetze IM Internet. Where tax was withheld despite the treaty obstacle, the creditor recovers it through a refund application to the BZSt, the ErstattungsantragGesetze IM Internet, within four years after the end of the calendar year in which the remuneration was receivedGesetze IM Internet. Both the exemption and the refund application must be transmitted electronically in the officially prescribed dataset via the officially designated interfaceGesetze IM Internet; only to avoid undue hardship can the BZSt waive electronic filing and accept the paper form insteadGesetze IM Internet.

The scope of the § 50c application is unchangedBzst: it covers only licence fees and similar remuneration under § 50a EStGBzst. Relief from Kapitalertragsteuer requires a separate applicationBzst, as the page continues to stress — a distinction worth keeping straight, since a filing on the wrong form delays processing. Legal basis: §§ 49, 50a and 50c EStG.