Income tax return for the self-employed in Germany: forms, 2026 tax rates and worked examples

Who has to file an income tax return as a self-employed person?

As soon as you have income from self-employment (§ 18 EStG, freelancers/Freiberufler) or from a trade business (§ 15 EStG), you are obliged to file an income tax return – regardless of whether you make a profit or a loss. This also applies if you are only self-employed on the side; employees who earn more than €410 a year from a side activity must also file a return. More in the guide self-employment on the side.

Under § 25 Abs. 4 EStG you submit the return electronically with a certificate via ELSTER or certified software. The tax office (Finanzamt) only accepts a paper return if electronic filing is economically or personally unreasonable for you. How to register with ELSTER is explained in the guide ELSTER for the self-employed.

For the return you need your tax identification number (Steuer-ID) and the tax number (Steuernummer) that the tax office gave you after the tax registration questionnaire (Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung). The return shows the tax number under which you also file your VAT returns.

Nationality does not matter: anyone living in Germany has unlimited tax liability here on their worldwide income. You also declare income from abroad; a double taxation agreement then determines which country may tax it.

Which forms do you need for the income tax return?

The income tax return consists of a main form and several annexes (Anlagen). Which ones you fill in depends on whether you are a freelancer or a trade business and what other income you have. The distinction is explained in the guide freelancer (Freiberufler) or trade business (Gewerbe).

• Anlage S or G is only a short form: there you enter the profit determined in the Anlage EÜR and, for a trade business, the municipal multiplier (Hebesatz) and the trade tax base amount (Gewerbesteuer-Messbetrag) for the tax reduction under § 35 EStG.
• The Anlage EÜR is the real core: it shows business income and business expenses line by line. If you have several businesses, you file a separate Anlage EÜR for each.
• You need the Anlage AVEÜR (fixed asset register) as soon as you depreciate wearable fixed assets such as a laptop or car over several years.
• The Anlage Vorsorgeaufwand is especially important for the self-employed, because nobody reports your contributions automatically as they do for employees – if you forget it, you often give away several thousand euros of tax savings.

From profit to taxable income

Income tax is not calculated on your revenue, nor directly on your profit, but on your taxable income (zu versteuerndes Einkommen). The way there has fixed steps:

Example: a graphic designer (freelancer) has business income of €82,000 net and business expenses of €27,000 in 2026. Her profit according to the Anlage EÜR is €55,000. She pays €11,000 for health and long-term care insurance and €3,000 into a basic pension (Basisrente). After deducting these provision expenses and the special expenses lump sum of €36, around €40,964 of taxable income remains. On this, about €7,516 income tax is due in 2026 – 13.7 % of her profit.

• Profit from the Anlage EÜR (business income − business expenses, excluding VAT if you treat it correctly as a pass-through item – see preparing the EÜR).
• Plus other income, e.g. salary (after work-related expenses), rental income → total income (Summe der Einkünfte).
• Minus special expenses (Sonderausgaben): above all provision expenses (basic health and long-term care insurance in full, pension contributions up to the 2026 maximum of around €30,800), church tax, donations.
• Other provision expenses such as liability, disability or unemployment insurance only count up to €2,800 a year – and this amount is usually already used up by health insurance.
• Minus extraordinary burdens (außergewöhnliche Belastungen, e.g. high medical costs above the reasonable burden).
• Minus allowances, such as child allowances if they are more favourable than child benefit → taxable income.

Income tax rates 2026: basic allowance, progression, 42 % and 45 %

The tax scale under § 32a EStG is progressive: as income rises, not only the tax but also the tax rate on each additional euro rises (marginal tax rate, Grenzsteuersatz). The average tax rate – tax divided by income – is always well below the marginal tax rate.

For joint assessment of married couples or civil partners the splitting method applies: the joint income is halved, the tax on it calculated and doubled. With €60,000 joint taxable income this is 2 × €4,217 = €8,434 in 2026, instead of €14,233 for a single person. The effect is greatest when one partner earns a lot and the other little.

Tax calculation: how much income tax do you pay in 2026?

The following table shows income tax in 2026 under the basic scale (single, no children) for different taxable incomes, calculated with the formula from § 32a EStG. Note: for the self-employed, taxable income is usually 15–25 % below profit because of provision expenses.

So a top tax rate of 42 % does not mean that 42 % of your income is gone: even with €100,000 taxable income the average burden is around 31 %. How much you should set aside each month is shown in the guide tax reserves for the self-employed.

The marginal tax rate is the figure for decisions: if your taxable income is €50,000, an additional business expense of €1,000 saves you around €350 income tax (plus church tax if you pay it). At €20,000 it is only around €250. So a purchase “just for tax reasons” is never worthwhile – you always save only part of what you spend.

Second example with all components: an electrician (trade business, church member in North Rhine-Westphalia, municipal multiplier 400 %) has €80,000 profit and €16,000 provision expenses, so around €64,000 taxable income. The income tax according to the scale is €15,804. The trade tax of €7,770 is deducted from this under § 35 EStG (4.0 × base amount €1,942.50), leaving €8,034 income tax and €0 Soli. Church tax of around €1,422, on the other hand, is calculated on income tax before the credit (§ 51a EStG). Together with the trade tax he pays €17,226 – exactly as much as he would pay in income and church tax without trade tax.

Solidarity surcharge, church tax and trade tax credit

The solidarity surcharge (Solidaritätszuschlag) is 5.5 % of income tax, but since 2021 it is no longer charged for most people: in 2026 there is an exemption limit of €20,350 income tax (joint assessment €40,700). Above it there is a transition zone in which the Soli is at most 11.9 % of the amount above the exemption limit. As a single person you therefore only pay the Soli from around €75,000 taxable income, and the full rate only at much higher incomes.

You only pay church tax (Kirchensteuer) if you are a member of a religious community that levies tax. It is 8 % of income tax in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg and 9 % in all other federal states. You can deduct the church tax paid as a special expense the following year. You state whether you are a member in the main form; when you register your address in Germany it is recorded in the population register.

If you run a trade business, you may pay trade tax (Gewerbesteuer) to your municipality in addition to income tax. To avoid double taxation, your income tax is reduced under § 35 EStG by 4.0 times the trade tax base amount – at most by the trade tax actually paid. With a municipal multiplier of up to 400 %, trade tax is therefore practically fully offset; because income tax falls, the Soli falls too – church tax, however, is calculated on income tax before the credit. The calculation in detail is shown in the guide calculating trade tax. Freelancers pay no trade tax and therefore have no credit. Trade tax itself is not a business expense (§ 4 Abs. 5b EStG) and does not reduce the profit in the Anlage EÜR.

Deadlines: when must you file your income tax return?

The self-employed have the same deadline as everyone else who is required to file. With a tax advisor or income tax assistance association (Lohnsteuerhilfeverein) it is extended considerably. If the deadline falls on a weekend or public holiday, it moves to the next working day. All other dates of the year are in the guide tax deadlines for the self-employed.

If you file late, the tax office can impose a late filing penalty (Verspätungszuschlag): 0.25 % of the assessed tax (minus prepayments) for each month or part of a month, at least €25 per month. If you file without a tax advisor more than 14 months after the end of the tax year, the penalty is mandatory. Details in the guide late filing and late payment penalties.

The income tax assessment: check, pay, object

After processing, the tax office sends you the income tax assessment notice (Einkommensteuerbescheid), usually also digitally to your ELSTER mailbox. Since 2025 it is deemed to have been notified on the fourth day after posting or provision. From that day you have one month to lodge an objection (Einspruch, § 355 AO) – informally via ELSTER and free of charge.

Check above all: does the profit match your Anlage EÜR? Were all provision expenses taken into account? Were the prepayments you made credited? Any additional payment is usually due one month after notification. At the same time, the notice often sets new prepayments – which surprises many people in their second year. How to deal with this is explained in the guide tax prepayments; a checklist for the notice is in the guide checking your tax assessment.

Common mistakes and deductions people miss

Most expensive mistakes in the returns of the self-employed do not arise in the tax scale, but in profit determination and special expenses. Check these points before sending:

• Forgetting VAT: VAT collected and input VAT refunded are business income in the EÜR, VAT paid and input VAT are business expenses. If you record only one side, you distort your profit. Basics in the guide VAT for the self-employed.
• Wrong depreciation: as computer hardware, you may deduct a laptop costing €1,500 net in full in the year of purchase, whereas a car can only be spread over six years. If you simply book expensive purchases as a business expense, you risk corrections – see depreciation (AfA).
• Provision expenses not entered: without the Anlage Vorsorgeaufwand you can easily miss €3,000 of tax savings on €11,000 of health insurance.
• Home study and home office allowance: for days in the home office you get €6 per day, at most €1,260 a year – for the self-employed this belongs in the EÜR as a business expense.
• Private use not taxed: if you use a business car or phone privately, you must enter the private share as a withdrawal.
• Prepayments not checked: if the notice shows a wrong amount of prepayments made, you pay twice unless you react.

Preparing your income tax with KontoVexa

KontoVexa takes care of the most time-consuming part: from your invoices, receipts and bank transactions, SKR03 bookkeeping produces the Anlage EÜR, plus the fixed asset register (Anlage AVEÜR) with straight-line depreciation and low-value assets (GWG). On the Business and Pro plans KontoVexa checks the Anlage EÜR with the official ELSTER software (ERiC) and sends it directly; trade businesses can also submit the trade tax return. More on the page EÜR with KontoVexa.

KontoVexa does not create the main form (Mantelbogen) or the personal annexes such as Anlage S/G, Vorsorgeaufwand or Kind – you fill these in in Mein ELSTER or have your tax advisor prepare them. You simply take the profit for this from the Anlage EÜR in KontoVexa.

Frequently asked questions