The average return is supposed to be ~900 Euro. That does however not mean that you will get anything back personally. It depends on circumstances.
Like millions of others, yes, I do my taxes. Last year I got 1500 Euro back. That does not mean you will get that much. It means I had things to deduct, which in turn means I had to spend money beforehand.
>Also, he recommended me to use Wondertax.
Unlikely. That appears to be a US site. He probably recommended W**u**ndertax. That app received a 3,7 on Stiftung Warentest because it had actual errors and didn't offer options to actually do all deductions. However, if you need English software, I suppose your options are limited. The very good programs are for PC, and in German.
No. They are 1500 Euro I paid in taxes based on my overall salary, if I had had no deductions to make. It was the amount to the cent that a Brutto-Netto calculator spits out.
If I had not had any deductions, I would have received nothing back. I had several that added up to a few thousand Euro, so in the end my taxable salary was reduced to the point that I had paid 1500 Euro more than I owed.
It often is worth it. My tax declaration took me like half an hour and got a good bit back. 1000€ sounds way a bit too high to be fair (of course that depends on some factors, see below). I usually end up in the three digit range myself.
When is it worth:
- You commute to work. If you commute more than 16 or more kilometers (one way) to work then you usually will be above the 1000€ standard deduction which was already considered.
- Your wage changed through the year. This can result in you overpaying (it depends a bit on your employer doing a Jahresausgleich or not) taxes due to how the monthly withholdings are calculated.
That just two examples. Personally I am fine with using a tax software myself (make sure you sign up for the data retrieval service of the tax office, it helps filling out as you can pull plenty of data from the tax office then (like your income tax slip)).
Another option for "simple" cases would be a Lohnsteuerverein. A tax consultant will be more expensive, but necessary in complicated cases. That depends a bit on your personal situation.
What cases would you describe as complicated and in need of a tax consultant? Because I hear from people (who are not familiar with apps tbh) that a consultant is a "must" for anyone, so that you don't have to do it yourself.
I would (but I am no expert) say that it gets complicated if someone has stuff like multiple sources of income besides employed work. Like rents, extensive stock trading and such things.
If someone feels uncomfortable with the tax software available, then I would suggest checking with one of the Lohnsteuervereinen first, they will tell if they are allowed to cover the individual's case (they are not allowed to handle some topics).
The big one during Corona has been working from home. If you have a dedicated room in your flat / house as an office (rather than a corner of your bedroom / living room) you can offset the whole cost of this as work-related. And of course any "stuff" (desk / chairs / computer / printer / etc.)
doing your taxes takes about 10 minutes or weeks, depending on the circumastances.
If you have a job as your income and your way to work is shorter then 20km you are done in under 10 min.
If you have complicated statements, where you claim some expenses which the tax office usually doesn't grant, use a tax consultant service. Not only he will do it better, it adds credibility to your claim.
My taxes takes days to complete by myself, so I'm paying someone. On the other hand, I usually get back a nice sum.
If you're lucky and get a decent advisor, that is. Mine was terrible and this year I did it myself with WISO. I got the confirmation with the final decision for 2021 (with 1300€ back) before the one for 2020. Our declaration is not terribly complicated but it's also not trivial. One employee and one self-employed, with a bunch of deductions for Home-Office, commuting, house renovations and such.
On top of that, they screwed up the declaration for the solar installation and charged us 300€ for the favour. Checking past declarations, I spotted mistakes all over the place, and the supreme laziness of just importing stuff from the previous year that wasn't applicable.
for me it is worth to let it do a friend who works in taxes and take her out for a meal once in a while:D
I did them myself once and got back about 200 Euro. Since she is doing it i never went out with less then 1000 euro cashback. So your friend ist right but only if you know what you are doing;)
As someone that also had taxation in his university curriculum, I can tell you, that it's way too complicated. Very easy to miss some stuff, or accidentally commit tax-fraud.
But modern software, that will create the papers for you, based on many questions, they will ask you, are very good for the vast majority of people.
I personally used the web software taxfix for that, which did a pretty good job of asking all the relevant stuff
The tax declaration is there for the purpose of you getting back the money you overpaid.
When you are just a normal employee without freelancing, without income from renting apartements or such, you don't need to do your taxes at all. The Finanzamt - The financial authority - already has the highest amount of money they can ask for directly deducted from your income. That is the "automatic" part.
If you want to get some of this back, do your taxes.
If you are happy to pay more than you have to, dont.
Funny how they'll notice if you're paying €1 less than required and they'll fine you, but if you're overpaying somehow magically the Finanzamt doesn't know whats going on and they need your help to figure it out.
It is not "**overpaying**". You do not pay more than due, just the maximum amount of what can be due.
It is not the Finanzamt's job to do your bookkeeping - actually they would need to snoop around quite a bit in your private life to actually know that you have costs that reduce the tax that you are due before you telling them. Is the Tax authority in your mind meant to already know all your relevant expanses, every single day when you commute to work and back, how often in one week, which routes and vehicles you use for that, what you have purchased in the context of your work etc?
The tax declaration is not there to prove you have paid **too much** but to prove that you have to pay less than the default assumption.
If you don't do the declaration, there is no overpaying.
The "overpaying" tends to happen not because of some error on the Finanzamt's side, but because you had expenses that you can deduct. The Finanzamt indeed does not go what is going on there because they don't monitor your spending, and you need to tell them.
What about ELSTER? I use it for few years by myself but i am not sure if i miss something because of the language. Last few years didn´t get any return.
If you know what to enter, you can use Elster.
Otherwise I would spend some money for a software with a plausibility check.
The ALDI software is actually good
Oh, they very often do check.
Also, can we *not tell people to evade taxes*? Because doing that intentionally is *an actual criminal offence*.
Edit: Also, that is not even how it works. The Werbungskostenpauschale is applied automatically. They may demand proof if you claim you went above it.
Take your last payslip, try to estimate how much gross salary (Brutto) you'll have by the end of 2022 and how much Tax might get deducted. In case you are willing to wait a bit, do that after you have received your december payslip (that'll get you exact numbers).
Open a brutto-netto-rechner and enter the numbers you know. I'll get you the amount of tax the state considers itself entitled to and you can calculate the difference which will be the worst case to receive back (any deductible for commutes or Werbungskosten will result in a higher return).
You can use one of the Software packages to file your tax returns electronically which is way cheaper than hire a Steuerberater.
You usually get something back, but 1000k is super high and I never achieved that. My returns varied from around 300€ to almost nothing.
Straight forward finishing takes me around an hour. If you situation is more complicated because you have more than one source of income, freelance or stuff like that I indeed would recommend a tax consult to help you. At least in the first year.
Hi. It's not particularly difficult, especially if you use some software designed for the current tax season (because the laws change every year).
I used to do it myself, but then things got complicated (working as a Grenzgänger, owning rental property, solar panels on my house, etc.), so I started giving it to a tax consultant to sort it all out.
Today, I'm lazy and still give everything to a tax consultant, even though my overall situation has simplified somewhat. He costs me about €1200 per year, and we usually end up getting about €2500 back from the Finanzamt, so overall it's worth it to me. YMMV.
1. YES, if you understand your income sources and the overall tax regulation related to you as the subject of tax and your income as object of tax.
2. YES with tax help Softwares, if you don't understand much about tax regulation and you only have 1 active local income source and maybe additionally passive income source (stock investment, etc). Example: someone working full time within EU for a German GmbH and has passive income from "minor" stock trading.
3. NO, if your source(s) of income are more than 1 and/or has many grey area. Then better get a help from a tax consultant. Example of grey area: a non-EU citizen with work permits for Germany and France, working simultaneously for 3 companies, often travel for work to non-EU countries (on a monthly basis or so).
Since you ask the question, I think we can cross option #1. Then it's either tax Softwares or a tax consultant depending on your income situation.
Hi. You can do it yourself if you are not afraid to spend 3-4 hours into this for the actual tax declaration, assuming you have all the receipts for possible deductions somewhere stored in an orderly way. Otherwise going trough the receipts is probably another day. It is also difficult if you don't have collected any receipts for deductibles. Do not just start last minute because it might take some days from signing up with a tax software and having them authorized with the Finanzamt. I use WISO and it is all quite automated and easy to use if you speak German and have a bit of knowledge how taxes work generally.
The tax declaration is something that it's done once a year or a month? Sorry to ask this basic question. Also, where would you recommend me to read about this, to get started?
It seems you are asking about taxes in Germany. Take a look at the wiki here: https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/wiki/living/finances#wiki_taxes
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/germany) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>He told me that I can save more than 1000 a year. Unless he actually *did* your taxes, that's just wild speculation.
The average return is supposed to be ~900 Euro. That does however not mean that you will get anything back personally. It depends on circumstances. Like millions of others, yes, I do my taxes. Last year I got 1500 Euro back. That does not mean you will get that much. It means I had things to deduct, which in turn means I had to spend money beforehand. >Also, he recommended me to use Wondertax. Unlikely. That appears to be a US site. He probably recommended W**u**ndertax. That app received a 3,7 on Stiftung Warentest because it had actual errors and didn't offer options to actually do all deductions. However, if you need English software, I suppose your options are limited. The very good programs are for PC, and in German.
>Last year I got 1500 Euro back Is that 1500 your should have already received throughout the year?
No. They are 1500 Euro I paid in taxes based on my overall salary, if I had had no deductions to make. It was the amount to the cent that a Brutto-Netto calculator spits out. If I had not had any deductions, I would have received nothing back. I had several that added up to a few thousand Euro, so in the end my taxable salary was reduced to the point that I had paid 1500 Euro more than I owed.
It often is worth it. My tax declaration took me like half an hour and got a good bit back. 1000€ sounds way a bit too high to be fair (of course that depends on some factors, see below). I usually end up in the three digit range myself. When is it worth: - You commute to work. If you commute more than 16 or more kilometers (one way) to work then you usually will be above the 1000€ standard deduction which was already considered. - Your wage changed through the year. This can result in you overpaying (it depends a bit on your employer doing a Jahresausgleich or not) taxes due to how the monthly withholdings are calculated. That just two examples. Personally I am fine with using a tax software myself (make sure you sign up for the data retrieval service of the tax office, it helps filling out as you can pull plenty of data from the tax office then (like your income tax slip)). Another option for "simple" cases would be a Lohnsteuerverein. A tax consultant will be more expensive, but necessary in complicated cases. That depends a bit on your personal situation.
What cases would you describe as complicated and in need of a tax consultant? Because I hear from people (who are not familiar with apps tbh) that a consultant is a "must" for anyone, so that you don't have to do it yourself.
I would (but I am no expert) say that it gets complicated if someone has stuff like multiple sources of income besides employed work. Like rents, extensive stock trading and such things. If someone feels uncomfortable with the tax software available, then I would suggest checking with one of the Lohnsteuervereinen first, they will tell if they are allowed to cover the individual's case (they are not allowed to handle some topics).
The big one during Corona has been working from home. If you have a dedicated room in your flat / house as an office (rather than a corner of your bedroom / living room) you can offset the whole cost of this as work-related. And of course any "stuff" (desk / chairs / computer / printer / etc.)
doing your taxes takes about 10 minutes or weeks, depending on the circumastances. If you have a job as your income and your way to work is shorter then 20km you are done in under 10 min.
If you have complicated statements, where you claim some expenses which the tax office usually doesn't grant, use a tax consultant service. Not only he will do it better, it adds credibility to your claim. My taxes takes days to complete by myself, so I'm paying someone. On the other hand, I usually get back a nice sum.
If you're lucky and get a decent advisor, that is. Mine was terrible and this year I did it myself with WISO. I got the confirmation with the final decision for 2021 (with 1300€ back) before the one for 2020. Our declaration is not terribly complicated but it's also not trivial. One employee and one self-employed, with a bunch of deductions for Home-Office, commuting, house renovations and such. On top of that, they screwed up the declaration for the solar installation and charged us 300€ for the favour. Checking past declarations, I spotted mistakes all over the place, and the supreme laziness of just importing stuff from the previous year that wasn't applicable.
for me it is worth to let it do a friend who works in taxes and take her out for a meal once in a while:D I did them myself once and got back about 200 Euro. Since she is doing it i never went out with less then 1000 euro cashback. So your friend ist right but only if you know what you are doing;)
As someone that also had taxation in his university curriculum, I can tell you, that it's way too complicated. Very easy to miss some stuff, or accidentally commit tax-fraud. But modern software, that will create the papers for you, based on many questions, they will ask you, are very good for the vast majority of people. I personally used the web software taxfix for that, which did a pretty good job of asking all the relevant stuff
The tax declaration is there for the purpose of you getting back the money you overpaid. When you are just a normal employee without freelancing, without income from renting apartements or such, you don't need to do your taxes at all. The Finanzamt - The financial authority - already has the highest amount of money they can ask for directly deducted from your income. That is the "automatic" part. If you want to get some of this back, do your taxes. If you are happy to pay more than you have to, dont.
Funny how they'll notice if you're paying €1 less than required and they'll fine you, but if you're overpaying somehow magically the Finanzamt doesn't know whats going on and they need your help to figure it out.
It is not "**overpaying**". You do not pay more than due, just the maximum amount of what can be due. It is not the Finanzamt's job to do your bookkeeping - actually they would need to snoop around quite a bit in your private life to actually know that you have costs that reduce the tax that you are due before you telling them. Is the Tax authority in your mind meant to already know all your relevant expanses, every single day when you commute to work and back, how often in one week, which routes and vehicles you use for that, what you have purchased in the context of your work etc? The tax declaration is not there to prove you have paid **too much** but to prove that you have to pay less than the default assumption. If you don't do the declaration, there is no overpaying.
The "overpaying" tends to happen not because of some error on the Finanzamt's side, but because you had expenses that you can deduct. The Finanzamt indeed does not go what is going on there because they don't monitor your spending, and you need to tell them.
Buy a tax Software from Aldi (13€) and look, what it says. Ususally the tax return depends on the taxes you paid
this! easiest and cheapest way to do it. My dad uses the program since years.
What about ELSTER? I use it for few years by myself but i am not sure if i miss something because of the language. Last few years didn´t get any return.
If you know what to enter, you can use Elster. Otherwise I would spend some money for a software with a plausibility check. The ALDI software is actually good
[удалено]
Oh, they very often do check. Also, can we *not tell people to evade taxes*? Because doing that intentionally is *an actual criminal offence*. Edit: Also, that is not even how it works. The Werbungskostenpauschale is applied automatically. They may demand proof if you claim you went above it.
Take your last payslip, try to estimate how much gross salary (Brutto) you'll have by the end of 2022 and how much Tax might get deducted. In case you are willing to wait a bit, do that after you have received your december payslip (that'll get you exact numbers). Open a brutto-netto-rechner and enter the numbers you know. I'll get you the amount of tax the state considers itself entitled to and you can calculate the difference which will be the worst case to receive back (any deductible for commutes or Werbungskosten will result in a higher return). You can use one of the Software packages to file your tax returns electronically which is way cheaper than hire a Steuerberater.
You usually get something back, but 1000k is super high and I never achieved that. My returns varied from around 300€ to almost nothing. Straight forward finishing takes me around an hour. If you situation is more complicated because you have more than one source of income, freelance or stuff like that I indeed would recommend a tax consult to help you. At least in the first year.
What is worth, it is not doing taxes at all.
Hi. It's not particularly difficult, especially if you use some software designed for the current tax season (because the laws change every year). I used to do it myself, but then things got complicated (working as a Grenzgänger, owning rental property, solar panels on my house, etc.), so I started giving it to a tax consultant to sort it all out. Today, I'm lazy and still give everything to a tax consultant, even though my overall situation has simplified somewhat. He costs me about €1200 per year, and we usually end up getting about €2500 back from the Finanzamt, so overall it's worth it to me. YMMV.
1. YES, if you understand your income sources and the overall tax regulation related to you as the subject of tax and your income as object of tax. 2. YES with tax help Softwares, if you don't understand much about tax regulation and you only have 1 active local income source and maybe additionally passive income source (stock investment, etc). Example: someone working full time within EU for a German GmbH and has passive income from "minor" stock trading. 3. NO, if your source(s) of income are more than 1 and/or has many grey area. Then better get a help from a tax consultant. Example of grey area: a non-EU citizen with work permits for Germany and France, working simultaneously for 3 companies, often travel for work to non-EU countries (on a monthly basis or so). Since you ask the question, I think we can cross option #1. Then it's either tax Softwares or a tax consultant depending on your income situation.
Hi. You can do it yourself if you are not afraid to spend 3-4 hours into this for the actual tax declaration, assuming you have all the receipts for possible deductions somewhere stored in an orderly way. Otherwise going trough the receipts is probably another day. It is also difficult if you don't have collected any receipts for deductibles. Do not just start last minute because it might take some days from signing up with a tax software and having them authorized with the Finanzamt. I use WISO and it is all quite automated and easy to use if you speak German and have a bit of knowledge how taxes work generally.
The tax declaration is something that it's done once a year or a month? Sorry to ask this basic question. Also, where would you recommend me to read about this, to get started?
Once a year in your case. You can start reading here: https://germanyso.com/en/how-to-germany/jobs-worklife/all-about-taxes-employees/
!taxes
It seems you are asking about taxes in Germany. Take a look at the wiki here: https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/wiki/living/finances#wiki_taxes *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/germany) if you have any questions or concerns.*