Filing a tax return in Germany

The annual German income-tax return — the Einkommensteuererklärung — is where the year’s taxes are settled: you declare your income and deductions, and the Finanzamt works out whether you owe more or get money back. For a lot of employees that means a refund. Here is who has to file, when, and how.

Who must file — and who simply should

Not everyone is obliged to file. Many employees with a single job and ordinary deductions are not required to submit a return, because tax is already withheld from their salary each month. But they very often choose to file anyway — because deductible expenses frequently produce a refund.

Filing is mandatory in a range of situations. The self-employed — Freiberufler and traders — must file. So must people who, for example, had several employers at the same time, received wage-replacement benefits above a threshold (such as short-time or parental allowances), or were assigned certain allowances during the year. If you are unsure which group you fall into, that is exactly the kind of question for a Steuerberater (tax adviser).

The deadline

For the 2025 tax year, the return is due by 31 July 2026 if you prepare it yourself. If a Steuerberater files on your behalf, the deadline is substantially later. If 31 July falls on a weekend or public holiday, the date moves to the next working day.

How to file — ELSTER

Returns are filed electronically through ELSTER (Elektronische Steuererklärung), the tax authority’s free online portal. Self-employed people generally have to file electronically. Because activating an ELSTER account requires a code sent by post, set the account up a couple of weeks before you actually need to submit anything.

Ongoing obligations feed into the annual picture too. If you run a business you may already be submitting periodic VAT returns during the year — see our guide to the Umsatzsteuer-Voranmeldung.

What a refund depends on

A refund (Steuererstattung) arises when the tax already withheld or prepaid during the year is more than your actual liability. The more deductible items you declare, the lower your taxable income — and the bigger the potential refund. The main categories are work-related expenses (Werbungskosten), special expenses (Sonderausgaben, such as certain insurance and church tax), and extraordinary burdens (außergewöhnliche Belastungen).

There is no guaranteed refund — the outcome can also be an additional payment if too little was withheld. To get a feel for the underlying tax before you file, you can estimate it with our income-tax calculator.

Frequently asked