Submit a declaration of findings

Prerequisites

The tax office responsible for the business or activity and the tax office responsible for the place of residence differ from each other.

or

Income is generated jointly by several people.

Documents required

For separate determination:

• No
• If documents or information are required, the tax office will contact you.

For separate and uniform determination:

• Copies of the articles of association,
• Documents required for property acquisitions, depending on the type of income.
• If further documents or information are required, the tax office will contact you.

Please note

1. Separate determination

If your agricultural, forestry, or commercial business is located in a place that is not your place of residence, and at the same time the business location and your residence are in two different tax office districts, the income from the business must be determined separately. The same applies if you do not carry out your freelance work from your place of residence and the place of work and your residence are in two different tax office districts.

In order for the tax office to carry out the separate determination of your agricultural and forestry or commercial income or your income from freelance work, it is necessary to submit a declaration for separate determination to the tax office responsible for the business or activity.

The result of the separate assessment will be communicated to you by the assessment notice, automatically included in your income tax assessment and taxed there.

2. Separate and uniform determination

If income is generated jointly by several people, for example, several people jointly rent out a house, the income must be determined separately and uniformly.

In order for the tax office to carry out the separate and uniform determination of income, a declaration for separate and uniform determination must be submitted.

In the assessment procedure, the total income is determined and distributed among the individual persons involved.

The tax office will issue a notice of assessment regarding this result. The income attributable to each individual involved will be automatically taken into account in their respective income tax assessments and taxed there.

Deadlines

The deadline for submission is July 31st of the year following the year in which the income was earned.




If the tax return is prepared by a member of the tax consulting profession, the filing deadline is February 28th/29th of the year after next.




Different deadlines may apply to income from an agricultural or forestry business.




The deadlines for submissions have been extended for the years 2019 to 2024.

Procedure

The declaration of assessment must be submitted electronically:

To do this, log in to the website “ELSTER – Your Online Tax Office” of the German tax administration with your ELSTER user account.

If you do not yet have an ELSTER user account, you must first create one. Registration involves several steps and can take up to two weeks.

Next, under the "Forms & Services" tab, select "All Forms". Then click on "Assessment" and select the declaration that applies to you:

• Separate and uniform determination of the basis for income taxation (ESt 1 B),
• Separate determination of the basis for income taxation (ESt 1 D) or
• Separate determination of the profit from the fictitious disposal of old shares as of December 31, 2017, pursuant to Section 56 Paragraph 5 of the Investment Tax Act (InvSt VG)

Complete the online form in full, upload any required documents if necessary, and submit the declaration.

The tax office will review the information in your declaration and will contact you if further documents or information are required. A notice of assessment will then be issued, determining your income. This determined income will be automatically used as the basis for your income tax assessment.

If you believe that submitting your tax return electronically would cause undue hardship, please contact the relevant tax office.

Processing time

The processing time depends on the individual case.

Fees

No

Legal remedies

Objection

Legal basis

Sections 179 et seq. of the German Fiscal Code (AO)


AO - Tax Code (gesetze-im-internet.de)




Sections 183 et seq. of the German Fiscal Code (AO)


AO - Tax Code (gesetze-im-internet.de)