英文退税指南

http://www.toytowngermany.com/wiki/ELSTER

ELSTER

Disclaimer: in Germany only tax advisors are allowed to give tax advice, if in doubt consult one.

ELSTER (ELektronische STeuerERklärung) = electronic tax declaration

ElsterFormular is a free software issued by the Finanzamt, download at https://www.elster.de/elfo_down.php

For your income tax return you will need the general tax form Mantelbogen (for your name, address, bank details) and a varying number of additional tax forms (= Anlagen), depending on what kinds of income you had, if you:

• were an employee you will need Anlage N.
• were self-employed then Anlage S (for freelancers) or Anlage G (for all other self-employed).
• for your health insurance payments you'll need Anlage Vorsorgeaufwand (see instructions below in yellow area, self-employed just ignore the word Lohnsteuerbescheinigung and fill it in anyway).
• have a kid/kids you'll also need Anlage Kind (see here).
• had income from outside Germany you'll need to also fill in Anlage AUS (see here), but Anlage N-AUS (see here) if you had employee income from outside Germany while being resident in Germany.
• had rental income you'll need Anlage V (see here).
• expect to get some Abgeltungssteuer you paid on your German bank interest income back because your individual tax rate will be under 25%, and for foreign interest income, you will need Anlage KAP.
• financially supported parents/spouse you'll need Anlage Unterhalt (see here).
• had speculative income e.g. if you sold a house/apartment that's not your primary residence less than 10 years after you bought it, you'll need Anlage SO.

Any income you had prior to moving to Germany, fill in gross total in line 99 of Mantelbogen ESt 1A only!

If you're self-employed, you will have to keep all invoices for 10 years, within that period the Finanzamt can come along any time and do an audit (=Betriebsprüfung).

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If you're not self-employed, you can avoid Elster altogether and just do a good old-fashioned tax return on paper.

--> Employees: scroll down to yellow section on how to do a paper-based tax return for employees.

--> Pensioners: have a look at the instructions here if you're resident in Germany, or in the last part of this post if you live outside Germany.

--> Self-employed, turnover under 17,500