For All the Companies: The Tax Filing Solutions You Can Be Sure of

Any company who has applied for a permanent extension must then make a special advance payment on sales tax. This means that 1/11 of the sales tax paid in the previous year must be paid to the tax office by February 10th of each year.

This ensures that the permanent extension of the deadline does extend the submission deadline for the advance VAT return, but does not extend the amount of the pre-paid VAT to be paid. Maybe you like legal marketing.

The tax office is therefore on the safe side. Of course, the special advance payment will be taken into account in the annual sales tax return to reduce tax.

One tax – three names

What is the difference between sales tax, sales tax and input tax? Basically nothing. The name only makes it clear who is dealing with this type of tax and for what purpose. With proper online tax filing this works perfect.

Definition of sales tax (USt)

The term says almost everything: sales tax is a tax on sales, i.e. the amount of money turned over. Whenever we buy goods or use services, the tax office holds out their hand. The supplying or performing company is legally obliged to calculate the tax and to report it to the tax office and pay it, either monthly, quarterly or annually. One speaks here of “sales tax liability”, “sales tax advance notification” and “sales tax advance payment”.

The sales tax is always included in the final price. Each of us pays sales tax when we buy goods or use services from an entrepreneur. The only exceptions are small business owners and resellers .

The term “sales tax” is used from the point of view of entrepreneurs, especially when they are dealing with the tax office. For them it is in most cases a transitory post: the entrepreneur takes it in, he takes it away. At least if he doesn’t make mistakes that make him pay sales tax out of pocket.

Definition of value added tax (VAT)

Normally, sales tax is passed on from company to company in the production chain. It only gets stuck with the end customer. It is only for him or her that the goods or services become more expensive because of the tax, so they are “worth more”. Therefore, the term “value added tax” has become established for dealing with end customers. Entrepreneurs often talk to each other about VAT.

Definition of input tax (VSt)

“Input tax” refers to the sales tax that a company paid or, better said, should have paid when purchasing goods or services.

As written above, sales tax is mostly a transitory item in the production chain. Companies offset the sales tax paid on the purchase with the sales tax received on the sale. Without this offsetting, every processing or reselling company would charge sales tax on the sales tax paid. The tax alone would make the end product exponentially more expensive.

For the Self Employed

When the self-employed or the tax office speaks of this offsetting, they use the terms “input tax” and “input tax deduction”. You do not pass on the full sales tax that you received on the sale to the tax office, but deduct the input tax you paid beforehand.