File the income-tax return

The wage tax taken from your pay is not always your final income tax. Some employees must file a tax return (Steuererklärung); employees with unlimited German income-tax liability can also file voluntarily when they have no filing duty. The ordinary deadline for a mandatory return is 7 months after the tax year. Voluntary returns generally have 4 years.

In short

Reasons you must file include:

• Jobs at the same time: You had individually taxed wages from more than one employer at the same time. A flat-taxed eligible Minijob under section 40a does not itself create this trigger. Changing employer during the year is not by itself the simultaneous-jobs case.
• Spouses and tax classes: Jointly assessed spouses both received wages, and one was in class V or VI or had a factor entered in class IV.
• Other income or benefits: Either of these separate positive sums exceeds 410 euros: taxable income not subject to wage-tax withholding, reduced by the applicable amounts under sections 13(3) and 24a; or income and benefits subject to the progression proviso.
• An entered wage-tax allowance: An allowance under section 39a of the kinds section 46 (2) No. 4 names was entered, and wages for the year are above the basic allowance plus the employee lump sum and the special-expenses lump sum (or the higher total for spouses who meet section 26 (1)).
• Cross-border wage-tax features: Wage-tax features for a cross-border spouse under section 1a, or for a person under section 1 (3) or section 1a, are another filing trigger (section 46 (2) No. 7).

Deadlines and an email-safety warning:

• If you must file and you prepare the return yourself, the ordinary deadline is 7 months after the tax year, normally 31 July of the following year. Check the date for your year.
• If you are not required to file, a voluntary employee return generally has 4 years after the tax year ends.
• When a tax adviser prepares a mandatory return, the deadline is the last day of February of the second year after the tax year. A voluntary return still generally follows the 4-year period.
• The tax administration does not ask by email for your tax number, your account, a card number, a PIN, or the answer to your security question.

What you need to know

The ordinary employee assessment described here applies to people with unlimited German income-tax liability (unbeschränkte Steuerpflicht). Under section 1, that normally follows from having a home or habitual residence in Germany; certain nonresident cases can also qualify. Your nationality alone does not decide this status.

If you have only limited German income-tax liability, as some nonresident employees do, section 50 has separate rules. Wage withholding generally settles the tax, subject to the assessment exceptions there. Access to its ordinary voluntary-assessment route also depends on nationality and country of residence. Ask the Finanzamt which route applies before relying on the voluntary-return explanation below.

Section 46 of the Income Tax Act applies to people whose income includes wages from which tax was already withheld. An assessment is carried out only in the cases listed in that section. If none applies, the wage tax withheld settles the income tax on those wages. The tax class explained in the salary guide affects your monthly withholding, which is separate from this assessment.

You must be assessed in these situations, among the others the section names:

• You had individually taxed wages from more than one employer at the same time, unless those wages were already combined for withholding. A flat-taxed eligible Minijob under section 40a is excluded from this assessment, because section 40a (5) applies section 40 (3), and does not itself create that simultaneous-jobs trigger.
• You and your spouse are assessed together, you both had wages, and one of you was in tax class V or VI, or the factor was entered on class IV.
• The positive sum of income subject to income tax but not wage-tax withholding, reduced by the applicable amounts attributable to it under sections 13(3) and 24a, exceeds 410 euros. Separately, the positive sum of income and benefits subject to the progression proviso is another trigger if it exceeds 410 euros.
• A wage-tax allowance under section 39a, of the kinds section 46 (2) No. 4 names, was entered, and wages for the year are above the basic allowance plus the employee lump sum and the special-expenses lump sum. For spouses who meet section 26 (1), that wage line is twice the basic allowance plus the employee lump sum and twice the special-expenses lump sum. The same test applies to a person within section 1 (2).
• Wage-tax features take account of a cross-border spouse under section 1a, or were formed for a person under section 1 (3) or section 1a. That is section 46 (2) No. 7.
• You request the assessment. The request is made by filing the return. The usual reason is to have the wage tax you already paid credited against the income tax.

Section 149 of the Fiscal Code adds another filing duty: if the Finanzamt asks you to file, you must do so even if it has already estimated your tax.

The Steuer-ID is the 11-digit number from the tax-ID page. The Federal Central Tax Office says the Finanzamt already knows it or can look it up, so a return can be filed without typing it. Keep the number anyway. Payroll and the wage-tax certificate use it.

What to do

1. Decide whether section 46 requires a return or whether you are filing because you want the withholding checked. Simultaneous individually taxed jobs, the joint-assessment tax-class situation above, either 410-euro positive-sum test above, an entered wage-tax allowance under section 46 (2) No. 4, and the cross-border wage-tax features in No. 7 are common triggers. A flat-taxed eligible Minijob under section 40a does not itself create the simultaneous-jobs trigger. A change of employer during the year does not by itself meet that condition. If you are unsure, ask the Finanzamt before you assume the withholding was the final word.
2. If you must file and prepare the return yourself, the ordinary deadline is 7 months after the tax year: normally 31 July of the following year. Weekend and public-holiday rules, transitional rules for particular tax years, or an extension can change the actual date. Check the deadline for your tax year. If you are not required to file and submit a voluntary employee return, you generally have 4 years after the tax year ends; for example, a voluntary 2025 return can normally be filed until 31 December 2029.
3. If a tax adviser, or another person the Fiscal Code lists for this purpose, prepares the return, the deadline moves to the last day of February of the second year after the tax year. That adviser extension applies to mandatory returns. A voluntary request under section 46 (2) number 8 generally follows the 4-year period above. The Finanzamt can also order an earlier date in the cases section 149 (4) lists, and it must then give you 4 months from the day you are told.
4. Use ELSTER, the tax administration’s online system, or the paper path your Finanzamt still accepts. ELSTER’s own start page says the tax administration never asks by email for your tax number, your account, a card number, a PIN, or the answer to your security question. A message that promises a refund and asks you to open a link is not the assessment.
5. Keep your payslips and wage-tax certificate. Deductions, tax rates, the solidarity surcharge and church tax depend on your return and your circumstances. A tax adviser is optional; consider one if you need individual advice.

Object to the assessment within one month

An objection to the tax assessment is an Einspruch under the Fiscal Code. File it with the Finanzamt that issued the assessment. Section 355(1) gives one month after the assessment is notified. Section 357 lets you file in writing, electronically, or for the record at the authority. Naming the objection incorrectly does not by itself make it invalid. A filing at another authority is in time only if it reaches an authority that can receive it before the month ends.

That one-month period is for the objection against the assessment. Section 355(2) leaves the separate objection in section 347(1), second sentence, without that one-month limit. That objection is for an application for an administrative act that the Finanzamt has not decided within a reasonable time, and for which it has not given a sufficient reason.

This objection is separate from the court payment-order objection in the debt-collection guide and the administrative objection in the official-letters guide. In a cross-border case, ask the Finanzamt which assessment applies and when the one-month period starts.

Common mistakes

• Treating class III, or a higher monthly net, as the year’s final tax. The tax withheld from your monthly pay is not always your final income tax. The final income-tax assessment is based on your return, when section 46 requires a return or you request an assessment.
• Applying the mandatory July or adviser February deadline to a voluntary employee return. If you have no filing duty, the voluntary return generally has a 4-year period. Confirm first that no mandatory trigger applies.
• Sending account details or a PIN because an email mentioned ELSTER or the Finanzamt. The ELSTER start page says the administration does not collect those by email.
• Looking for a single local deductions list. Expenses you claim belong in your return under the Income Tax Act; they are not a local flat amount.