Understanding letters you receive from the Finanzamt
Some days after registering as a freelancer in Germany, you will receive 3 important letters from the Finanzamt. Those are not love letters from the tax authorities but understanding them is key.
They look complicated and filled with Amt-German but this guide will do its best to decipher them for you.
The tax number letter – Steuernummer
A few weeks after registering as a self-employed person or freelancer, you should receive a letter with your Steuernummer (tax number). This letter is good news; it means you can start including your tax number on your invoices and charging clients. But like any letter from the German government, understanding and deciphering the wall of text and numbers can be difficult. So let’s start at the top.
Your new tax number
The first and most important part of the letter is at the top: your new steuernummer. It will have the following format: XX/XXX/XXXXX.
Tax obligations
The next section details your tax obligations as a self-employed person. Your exact obligations vary depending on your specific situation, but you will probably be required to submit one or all of the following:
- Einkommensteuer – your general income tax return once a year
- Umsatzsteuer – your VAT either monthly, quarterly or yearly
- Gewinnermittlung nach § 4 Abs. 3 EStG – your profit and loss statement (EĂśR) which is submitted together with your income tax
Your job title
The following information contains the official job title that you wrote down when you registered with the Finanzamt:
Steueridentifikationsnummer
The next part of the letter states your Steueridentifikationsnummer (tax ID number). This is your personal tax identification number and is used whenever you contact the Finanzamt so that they can quickly and correctly identify you. This number is assigned to you when you register your first address in Germany and doesn’t ever change.
When to submit your VAT declarations
The following section lets you know exactly when and how often you should submit your VAT declaration. The period will either be quarterly or monthly, but it’s important that you know which so you don’t miss a VAT payment and receive a fine from the Finanzamt. This is super easy to keep track off when using an accounting software.
If you registered as Kleinunternehmer, then this information will not appear in this letter; you will only need to submit your VAT yearly alongside your income tax.
Paying the Finanzamt
The final paragraph of this letter lets you know the different ways in which you can pay your taxes (most commonly via an IBAN bank transfer). Every time you pay or make a transfer, be sure to state your Steuernummer, the type of taxes you’re paying for as well as the applicable time period. If you want to automate the process, you can also agree to the SEPA Lastschriftverfahren (direct debit payment), but you’ll have to fill out an extra form on your Finanzamt’s website.
Income tax prepayment letter – Vorauszahlungsbescheid
The next letter you should receive from the Finanzamt is the Vorauszahlungsbescheid or prepayment letter. While the tables and numbers might seem scary at first, this letter is nothing more than a schedule of when the Finanzamt expects you to make your income tax prepayments.Â
The state does this to ensure that all freelancers and self-employed individuals pay their tax regularly and on time, but also so that they aren’t burdened with one massive payment at the end of the year.
The Finanzamt determines the amount that you have to pay based on your expected annual income (this amount can vary from year to year) and will be due either monthly or quarterly.
Required prepayments
At the top of the page, you will see precisely which prepayments for which taxes are required:
- Einkommensteuer (income tax)
- Solidaritätszuschlag (solidarity surcharge)
- Kirchensteuer (church tax) – if this applies to you.
When are the prepayments due and how big are they?
The next section of the letter contains a table detailing exactly how much your prepayments are and when they are due.
- The left column of the table states the type of taxes that are due (Einkommensteuer, Solidaritätszuschlag, and Kirchensteuer).
- The deadlines for prepayments are in the top row of the table (e.g. 12 Märs, 12 Juni, 12 September, 12 Dezember).
- The amounts that you have to pay are shown in the cells below the deadlines and to the right of the tax category.
The bottom section of the letter – Berechnung der Bemessungsgrundlage – details the amount that the prepayments are based on. This amount is based on the income you earned in the previous year, or on the estimate of yearly income that you provided to the Finanzamt when you registered as a self-employed individual.
VAT related letters
The VAT ID number – USt ID Nummer letter
If you have chosen to bill VAT on your invoices, you will also receive this in paper format from the central Finanzamt this time. This letter is the most straightforward of all.
It contains your VAT ID in this format DE XXXXXXXXX (9 numbers).
The VAT taxation method letter – Ist/Soll-versteuerung
The final letter contains a few big words that might seem frightening at first glance, but with a little translation, we will shrink them down to a manageable terror. Basically, this letter is about the method you use to declare your VAT. It lets you know your tax state relating to your Istversteuerung (debit taxation) and Sollversteuerung (actual taxation).
- With Sollversteuerung, the VAT that needs to be submitted to the Finanzamt is due as soon as you issue an invoice.
- With Istversteuerung, the VAT is only due when you receive money from your client or customer. Because of this, the Istversteuerung is preferred for freelancers, as you don’t need to fork out money to the state before you receive it.
The first paragraph of the Istversteuerung letter simply states that you are allowed to make use of the Istversteuerung. The next section details why you’re eligible for the Istversteuerung and why you don’t have to worry about the Sollversteuerung. The main reasons are because, as a freelancer, you make use of a profit and loss statement to declare your profit, and because you likely didn’t make more than 600.000€ in the previous year.
The final paragraph lets you know that should any of these rules no longer apply to you, then you can switch to Sollversteuerung in the following year without any notice.
End of “small business owner” notice letter
As you’ve learned in our guide about registering as a freelancer in Germany,, you can start with the “small business owner rules” (Kleinunternehmerregelung), which grants you simpler book-keeping rules. The main advantage is that you don’t have to bill & pay VAT forward, no VAT declaration. Pass the yearly 22 000€ income threshold, the Finanzamt lets you know that you are not a small business owner anymore.
This letter includes the date at which you should start declaring VAT (usually on a quarterly basis). It might also include the request of a one-off declaration, to cover for the time between the time you passed the threshold and the time you receive that letter.
Change in VAT declaration deadlines
After a certain threshold of VAT payed to the Finanzamt, they will let you know that you are to declare and pay VAT on a monthly basis & not on a quarterly basis anymore.
The letter includes the date at which:
- You should do a last quarterly declaration
- You should start to declare VAT monthly.
Feel free to ask questions in the comments if something is still unclear.
Bastien
hello, I received a mail from finanzamt, however I don’t have much time left in Germany and need to move out of Germany. My question is instead of mailing the papers back to them, can I hand the letter over by myself? Thanks!
Hey Lati. Yes. All Finanzämter have a mailbox out front, on the street side usually. You can put it in there yourself.
Hi Bastien,
Maybe a silly question but I received the prepayment letter and it states how much I have to pay in the columns you mentioned for 2023 and 2024. Does that mean I have to pay 2024 as well?
Hey Lea. No silly questions; only silly answers! I assume that the figures look different between 2023 & 2024. The Finanzamt is simply letting you know in advance how much to pay in 2024, when the time comes. They have calculated that you owe them more/less and adjusted the prepayments. You will still pay periodically on the dates indicated on the documents. Does it sound clearer now?
Oh ok I figured but wanted to make sure! Thank you very much for your help. Appreciate it.
Hey I have registered as a Freelancer and received my tax id, only havent made any invoices or made any hours on this freelance id, now I received a bill to pay stating I made 2500 euros and have to pay 475 euros for it, im super confused about this and dont want to pay this amount for work i havent done
Hey Thomas. Very confusing indeed. I don’t have a clue what this is about. I have to assume it’s a mistake for their part? I’d reach out to them directly to figure it out directly.
Hi Bastien,
thank you so much for the article. So useful. I just have one question – I have registered as a freelance graphic designer and received two letters from Finanzamt with my new tax number. I still don’t know if I’m registered as gewerbe or freiberufler. Do you know where can I find that info?
Cheers,
Maria
Hey Maria. Glad it was useful. I’d say it was pretty easy. If you haven’t been at the Gewerbeamt to register your Gewerbe, then you are considered Freiberufler right now. 🙂 Was this what you meant to be?