Authorised recipient for the German tax office (Empfangsbevollmächtigter, § 123 AO)

What is an authorised recipient?

An authorised recipient is a person or company in Germany that receives the tax office's letters for you. They need your power of attorney to do so. Your company remains the taxpayer: the authorised recipient does not file returns and does not pay tax for you.

The tax office can ask for an authorised recipient if your company has neither its seat nor its management in Germany, another EU country or an EEA country. That applies, for example, to businesses from the UK, the US, Turkey, Canada or Australia. You can also name one without being asked, for example right away in the VAT registration form.

What does § 123 AO say word for word?

• Who: anyone without a residence, habitual abode, seat or management in Germany, the EU or the EEA (sentence 1).
• When: when the tax office asks, within a reasonable period (sentence 1).
• Where: the authorised recipient must be in Germany (sentence 1).
• Warning first: the tax office must tell you what happens if you name nobody (sentence 4).

What happens if you name nobody?

If you name nobody after the request, sentence 2 applies: a letter to you counts as delivered one month after it was posted, and an electronic document on the fourth day after it was sent, unless it is established that it arrived later or not at all (sentence 3).

From that day on, deadlines run. You can only object to an assessment within one month after it was notified to you (§ 355 AO).

Estimates and surcharges can follow. If returns are missing, the tax office may estimate your tax (§ 162 AO). An unnoticed letter can therefore lead to an estimated assessment or a late filing surcharge (§ 152 AO).

German address, authorised recipient, fiscal representative or tax adviser?

Four terms, four different jobs. If you look for a German address for your VAT registration as a company outside the EU and the EEA, you will meet all four:

An address is not yet an authorised recipient. What counts is the power of attorney and naming the recipient to the tax office.

It does not have to be a tax adviser: § 123 AO only requires that the authorised recipient is in Germany. A typical seller with stock in a German warehouse does not qualify for a fiscal representative.

How do you name an authorised recipient?

1. 01Choose a person or company in Germany you trust with your tax office post.
2. 02Sign a power of attorney that allows them to receive your letters from the tax office.
3. 03Give the tax office their name and address: in the VAT registration form, section „Empfangsbevollmächtigte(r)“ (Authorised recipient), or later in a letter of your own. Enclose the power of attorney.
4. 04From then on, the tax office writes to that address in Germany.

Which tax office is responsible depends on where your company is based (§ 1 UStZustV):

• Finanzamt Hannover-Nord for businesses based in the UK
• Finanzamt Bonn-Innenstadt for businesses based in the US
• Finanzamt Dortmund-Unna for businesses based in Turkey
• Finanzamt Berlin International for most other countries outside the EU

How PortoDoc solves it

1. 01Address: You sign up and get your postal address in Ahrensburg near Hamburg with your personal PD number. It is a delivery address for letters, not a business, registered-office or imprint address.
2. 02Naming us: You sign the power of attorney that includes § 123 AO. Under “For the tax office”, your account shows exactly what to enter. You name PortoDoc to the tax office yourself, for example in the VAT registration form.
3. 03Scan: The tax office writes to us. We scan each letter and you get a notification. The letter appears in your account as a PDF.
4. 04AI summary: Every plan includes an English AI translation; depending on your plan, you also get an AI summary: non-binding aids, not tax advice; the original letter counts.
5. 05Your reply: You or your tax adviser reply to the tax office. We do not file returns, give tax advice or monitor deadlines.

PortoDoc is operated by Postuvio UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Am Tiergarten 10-12, 22926 Ahrensburg, Germany. Letters arrive in Ahrensburg (Schleswig-Holstein); data is stored on servers in the EU (Hetzner, Finland).

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