GermanyBundesfinanzhof
Corrected pension reports reopen assessments via § 175b AO
An insurer’s corrected annuity notice lets the tax office amend old assessments even though the original notice was processed as filed — and the legal-basis label itself is reportable data.
By Taxxa AI OyPublished 12 November 2026
A corrected third-party data transmission reopens an assessment under § 175b Abs. 1 Abgabenordnung even where the original transmission was processed exactly as filedBundesfinanzhof — and the transmitted legal-basis label itself is correctable data
Bundesfinanzhof. In X R 31/24 of 19 August 2026 the X Senate of the Bundesfinanzhof dismissed the revision against the Niedersächsisches Finanzgericht judgment
Bundesfinanzhof of 7 November 2024 (2 K 78/24), upheld amended income-tax notices for 2017 and 2018
Bundesfinanzhof and imposed costs on the claimant.
The singly assessed claimant received life annuities from insurer L of 294,360.17 Euro for 2017 and 78,645.39 Euro for 2018, declared as time-limited domestic private annuities. L's original electronic notices read "Leibrente (Rentenart 7)" with legal basis § 22 Nr. 1 Satz 3 Buchst. a Doppelbuchst. bb Satz 5 Einkommensteuergesetz with § 55 Abs. 2 Einkommensteuer-Durchführungsverordnung, so the office taxed only the 7 percent earnings portion (20,604 and 5,505 Euro) in the 2017 notice of 15 October 2018 and the 2018 notice of 8 October 2019. Corrected notices of 2 April 2020 reclassified the same amounts as "Leibrente (Rentenart 1-4)"Bundesfinanzhof under § 22 Nr. 1 Satz 3 Buchst. a Doppelbuchst. aa EStG — basic-provision benefits, with a basic-pension-contract flag for 2018 — and the office amended both years on 8 December 2022 to the 66 percent taxable portion (199,603 and 55,521 Euro). L later confirmed AltZertG § 5a certification with § 10 Abs. 1 Nr. 2 Buchst. b EStG conditions met, and admitted the original transmission was wrong.
The original notices were materially wrong, so correction regimes were available in principle; the error finding went undisputed and the Senate treated the payments as § 10 Abs. 1 Nr. 2 Buchst. b pensions under Buchst. aaBundesfinanzhof. Procedurally the § 175b route was open for these post-2016 reporting years
Bundesfinanzhof.
Legal-basis labels are dataBundesfinanzhof. The reporter's subsumption binds neither office nor courts — § 93c Abs. 4 Satz 2 AO leaves fact-finding untouched — but § 22a Abs. 1 Satz 1 Nr. 2 Satz 1 EStG orders separate transmission by legal basis
Bundesfinanzhof, so the category assignment travels as data too
Bundesfinanzhof. The AltZertG certification as a binding base notice for § 10 Abs. 1 Nr. 2 Buchst. b, conclusive under § 182 Abs. 1 Satz 1 AO, underlines that quality.
Corrections fall under the wording: corrected records under § 93c Abs. 3 AO are transmitted data whose consideration can be testedBundesfinanzhof, or the duty to correct without delay would run empty; the old § 175b Abs. 4 reference to subsequently transmitted data confirms it, as does the structural kinship of § 175b Abs. 1 itself with the base-notice rule of § 175 Abs. 1 Satz 1 Nr. 1 AO. The mass-procedure purpose — an amendment power for third-party records regardless of why mishandled — covers corrections like first transmissions
Bundesfinanzhof, matching the unanimous literature.
The 8 December 2022 amendments were timelyBundesfinanzhof: with the 2017 return filed in 2018, the four-year period ran to the end of 2022. Advisers with annuity clients whose insurers correct pension notices should expect § 175b amendments even for notices processed without office error
Bundesfinanzhof.
The result follows from § 175b Abs. 1 AO with § 93c Abs. 1, 3 and 4 Satz 2 AO, read with § 22a Abs. 1 Satz 1 Nr. 2 Satz 1, § 22 Nr. 1 Satz 3 Buchst. a Doppelbuchst. aa and bb Satz 5 EStG, § 55 Abs. 2 EStDV and § 5a AltZertG.
Expect § 175b amendments for annuity clients whose insurers correct pension notices, even where the original notice was processed without office error.