The German purchase contract provides that the buyer bears the real estate transfer tax (Grunderwerbsteuer). After the sale you will nevertheless receive a corresponding assessment notice. The obvious reaction is: that must be a mistake, after all the other person is named in the contract. For the review, however, the tax liability to third parties (steuerliche Außenpflicht) and the agreed allocation of costs must be distinguished.
First determine the tax and the transaction
Our editorial recommendation: check sender, designated property, acquisition transaction and affected tax on the basis of the actual letter. Do not confuse the real estate transfer tax with the recurring property tax. Keep the assessment notice and the delivery status in full and pass both on promptly to your tax adviser.
The article does not name a blanket period for legal remedies. Which action is necessary within which period is clarified from the specific assessment notice and its notification. Private forwarding to the buyer alone is not yet a professionally confirmed response to the authority.
What the statutory liability to third parties means
§ 13 number 1 GrEStG regularly names the persons involved in an acquisition transaction as contracting parties as taxpayers. [GRESTG_1983-13] § 44 AO regulates joint liability: unless otherwise stipulated, each joint debtor owes the whole performance; actual fulfilment by one also counts for the others. [AO_1977-44]
This means that an internal buyer clause cannot readily be treated as excluding any seller obligation vis‑à‑vis the tax office. Whether the specific assessment notice and an administrative selection are lawful is not decided by this article any more than a particular exemption or special case.
An invented unclear payment receipt
A seller received only the message “already done” from the buyer. Now an assessment notice arrives addressed to her. She neither assumes a double tax liability nor a proven payment. She gathers the available documents and has allocation, incoming payment and the assessment notice clarified together.
A screenshot of a transfer instruction is not thereby the confirmed fulfilment of the correct tax liability. Likewise, an outstanding assessment notice is not ignored merely because private communication gives a different impression.
Read the purchase contract on a second level
Which allocation of costs and which possible compensation between the parties have been agreed are examined separately. The article does not promise an automatic recourse or a specific enforcement. For that, the contract, the actual payment status and the individual case are decisive.
Arrange possible payments and reimbursements so that no unnoticed double processing occurs later. Coordinate concrete payment and appeals questions with your adviser; a premature private offset against other outstanding amounts does not help the authority’s allocation.
Close the case after clarification
Record the confirmed tax settlement and any outstanding private settlement separately. That way it remains visible which problem was actually solved. The clause on the allocation of costs retains its evaluative value without being misconstrued as supposed protection against every authority assessment notice.