Paying a fine in installments - in which cases is this possible?

January 25, 2021 /

Convicted persons are not always in a financial position to pay a fine imposed by the court in one go. We will show you under which circumstances a fine can be paid in installments.

Requirements for paying a fine in installments

If you have been sentenced to a fine by the court and the sentence is legally binding, you will be required to pay your fine. Normally, according to §40 StGB, the entire sum is due as a one-off payment. Payment in installments is not possible without further ado, but there are exceptions:

In order to pay a fine in installments, it must be possible to prove that immediate payment cannot be reasonably expected due to personal and / or financial circumstances in accordance with Section 42 StGB. In this case, an application for payment in installments can be submitted to the responsible public prosecutor’s office.

This application does not have to follow a specific pattern, but the following aspects should be taken into account:

The reasons for an installment payment should be stated objectively and in detail
The fine itself should not be called into question
Enclose clear evidence, e.g. in the form of a salary slip, that the one-off payment cannot be made

Impending consequences if the fine is not paid

If the public prosecutor’s office has approved the installment payment but you have missed the payment deadline, you will not be sentenced to prison immediately. Instead, you will first receive a reminder with a new payment request. If you do not pay the fine due, you will be summoned to alternative custody. If you do not comply with this summons, an arrest warrant will be issued for non-payment of the fine. However, it is possible for you to avert imprisonment at any time if you are still able to pay the debt in the meantime. This means that in Germany it is generally possible to serve a substitute custodial sentence instead of a fine, although this requires a number of defaults.

In the event that payment in installments is not approved by the public prosecutor’s office, it is generally also possible to submit an application for conversion to community service. The inability to pay must be proven in a similar way to the application for payment by installments. You can end the community service at any time by paying the amount owed. The conversion of a daily rate into a certain number of hours of work depends on your respective federal state:

Baden-Württemberg, Bremen 4 hours
Hamburg, Saxony 5 hours
All other federal states 6 hours

Other possible options for paying the fine

Failure to pay your fine can therefore have serious consequences for you, including possible imprisonment. Although it is not possible for you to negotiate the amount of the fine imposed and there are also strict limits on the duration of the repayment installments, you do have the option of contacting other creditors with outstanding debts. You could, for example, ask for provisionally reduced installment payments or a modified repayment plan so that you can repay your debt with the highest priority, the fine, in order to avert community service or imprisonment.

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