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TAXES

Germany’s official online tax portal is now available in English

Anyone who has filled out official forms online in Germany knows how frustrating it can be to translate applications line by line. Fortunately, this year’s tax process may be just a bit less painful for English speakers.

Published: 10 April 2024 16:46 CEST
ELSTER tax return
Germany's ELSTER tax return portal is now available in English. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-tmn | Christin Klose

Non-native German speakers who need to file taxes this year are in luck – ELSTER, Germany’s online portal for self-reporting taxes, is now available in English.

German residents who are required to file taxes, including freelancers and self-employed workers, may have used ELSTER before to submit tax information to the Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern).

ELSTER, which is a kind of clunky acronym for ‘ELektronische STeuerERklärung’ or electronic tax declaration, was designed by the tax office and serves as the official online tax submission portal.

Now, visitors to the ELSTER webpage can click on three dots in the top right corner of the screen to reveal a drop down menu with a link to the English version of the site. Text on the website – and its tax forms – are then automatically translated.

However, it should be noted that translations are automated via DeepL, so some phrases are bound to be a bit wonky.

Also, ELSTER’s English service is not without limitations, such as more detailed instructional pages and explainer videos that are still only available in German. So for those with little to no German comprehension, it may still be advisable to have a German friend or colleague on-call when you begin to file.

READ ALSO: 8 unlikely tax breaks that international residents in Germany need to know

Who can file their taxes with ELSTER?

Anyone who is filing taxes in Germany can use ELSTER to do so electronically.

Freelancers and self-employed workers are required to file taxes in Germany, as are people who earn more than €410 in additional income (like from rental income). 

Additionally, people must submit a tax return if they have received more than €410 in wellfare benefits, such as unemployment (Arbeitslosengeld), sickness (Krankengeld), parental allowance (Elterngeld) or short-time working benefits (Kurzarbeitsgeld).

Full and part-time employees generally aren’t required to file taxes in Germany. But some wage and salary workers choose to file in order to get a tax refund, especially when they qualify for specific tax write-offs.

The filing deadline for taxes was extended during Covid, so taxpayers have until September 2nd this year to file for income earned in 2023. Next year the deadline will return to normal, so a 2024 tax return will be due by July 31, 2025.

READ ALSO: What are the 2024 deadlines in Germany to submit my tax return?

If you wish to file your German taxes electronically, you will need to create an account with ELSTER, which requires a residence permit with an activated eID function. 

While ELSTER is Germany’s official tax filing portal, there are also several apps with an English-language function which residents can use to file their taxes, such as TaxFix and Wundertax. 

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TAXES

EXPLAINED: How do you close down a freelance business in Germany?

Leaving the country? Got a steady job offer you can’t say no to? Winding down your self-employment activities in Germany still requires taking a few bureaucratic steps.

Published: 15 May 2024 09:07 CEST
Updated: 15 May 2024 10:57 CEST
EXPLAINED: How do you close down a freelance business in Germany?

Striking out on your own as self-employed is one of the scariest – and potentially most rewarding things – you can do. In Germany, it also comes with its own set of rules around tax and social insurance.

But there are times when – for whatever reason – it may be time to move on.

Whether it’s because you have an exciting new opportunity or things haven’t quite worked out the way you hoped due to economic pressures – winding down self-employment the right way is crucial to avoid gaps in your health and social insurance coverage in Germany.

The steps you have to take are also a bit different depending on if you are new self-employed (Freiberufler) or have a trade licence (Gewerbe) – with some steps not being necessary for new self-employed.

Trade licences are automatically cancelled if the licenced person dies or the company ceases to have financial assets.

Resigning the trade licence or declaring it dormant

New self-employed people like writers or speakers don’t need to go through this step, as they don’t need a trade licence.

Those who have a trade licence will need to contact their competent local authority and resign it, or declare it dormant (withdrawing the licence). If you’re only winding down temporarily, declaring your trade licence dormant instead of de-registering completely may save you a few headaches later.

You may have to do this in person at your local trade office – or Gewerbeamt – depending on whether your local authority allows online de-registration or not. You’ll need to bring your official ID, trade licence, confirmation of registration and possibly an extract from the trade register. Fees are dependent on your local authority and can range from being free to €25.

You can declare the date you intend to resign the licence – which can be in the future. To ensure no gaps in your social insurance protections, including health insurance, set this date for the day before whatever comes next. For example, if you’re starting a new job on January 1st set the date for your trade licence to expire as December 31st.

The trade office will typically notify your local tax office, so you won’t need to do this yourself.

Notifying your tax office

If you’ve had to resign your trade licence, you can skip this step as your trade office will do it for you. If you’re a Freiberufler without a trade licence you need to resign, you’ll have to notify your local Finanzamt, or tax office, yourself.

Luckily, this is a pretty easy step.

First, you need to decide whether you’re ceasing operations completely or wanting to continue them part-time. If you’re ceasing completely, you’ll end up surrendering your self-employed tax number.

You don’t have to do this though. If you think you may still carry on some self-employed business as a side gig, you can inform the tax office that you intend to do so and keep your number.

At that point, the tax office should treat you as a Kleinunternehmer – or a small business making less than €22,000 a year. Having this status means that you will not need to pre-pay taxes or charge VAT on your invoices for freelance side projects.

If you derive any income from your side gig in the future though, you’ll still have to file a tax return.

READ ALSO: Can I have a freelance side gig as an employee in Germany?

Notifying your health insurance

While different private plans in Germany may have different notification requirements, if you have public health insurance in Germany, you should notify them that you’re winding up your self-employed business. Specifically, advise them exactly what date you’re wrapping up.

Again, this should be right before you start your new job or leave the country, to ensure no gaps in your coverage.

If ending your self-employment in Germany, take care to ensure that there’s no gaps in your health insurance coverage, by giving the right date for when you’re ceasing activity. You don’t want to be caught without coverage. Photo by Stephen Andrews on Unsplash

If you are in an artistic profession and thus pay pension, health, and nursing insurance through the Artist Social Insurance Fund (KSK), you should also advise them as well. If you’re leaving self-employment completely, you can typically give notice to KSK as to when it’s ending.

If you’re not, and intend to still make money freelancing as a side gig, they should know this as well. In this event, you’ll no longer pay health or care insurance through KSK, as this is covered through your main job.

You may need to continue to pay pension contributions through KSK based on the amount of money you still make from self-employed activities — depending on how much of them you continue.

KSK: How creative freelancers can pay less for German health insurance

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