Turnover tax - submit annual return or advance return

Annual VAT return

You must submit a VAT return electronically to the tax office for each calendar year. In it, you calculate the VAT yourself.

If your calculation results in an additional payment, you must pay this to the tax office within one month of submitting the annual return without being asked to do so. A refund amount will be offset against outstanding tax amounts or transferred to the account you have notified the tax office of. You will only receive a VAT assessment notice if the tax office differs from the VAT you have calculated.

Advance VAT return

As an entrepreneur, you are required to submit advance VAT returns electronically to the tax office on a monthly or quarterly basis. The submission period in the current year is regularly determined by the amount of the previous year's tax. The following rules apply, among others:

• If the turnover tax for the previous calendar year amounted to more than 7,500 euros, advance turnover tax returns must be submitted monthly in the current year.
• If the previous year's VAT did not exceed 1,000 euros, the tax office can exempt you from submitting advance VAT returns. In this case, only one annual return must be submitted.
• If there was a surplus in your favour of more than 7,500 euros for the previous calendar year, you can choose the calendar month as the advance return period instead of the calendar quarter.
• If you are setting up a new business, the advance return period is based on the anticipated tax in the year of establishment. The aforementioned amount limits apply here. Based on the expected tax, it is determined whether you have to submit advance tax returns monthly or quarterly. An exemption from the submission of advance returns is not possible for newly established companies.
• If you apply the small business regulation (19 UStG), you are generally exempt from submitting advance VAT returns and the annual VAT return.

The advance return must be received by the tax office no later than the 10th day after the end of the advance return period (quarter, month); at the same time, you must pay the tax calculated by yourself. The tax office does not issue a separate request for payment.

Extension of the tax deadline

The tax office can extend the deadline for submitting the advance returns and for paying the advance payments by one month. If you wish to make use of a standing deadline extension for the submission of the current advance VAT returns, you must first apply to the tax office for this. The deadline extension can be claimed if the tax office does not reject your application. A separate notice of approval will not be issued. The extension is valid until you no longer wish to make use of it or the tax office revokes it.

In the case of monthly submission, the granting of this extension is dependent on a special advance payment being made. In the case of quarterly submission, you do not have to make a special advance payment.

In the case of monthly submission, you must declare and pay the special advance payment by the 10th of the month following the month for which the extension is to apply for the first time. During its period of validity, the special advance payment must be declared and paid annually by 10 February



Obligation to authenticated electronic transmission

You must transmit the advance return for VAT, the application for extension of the standing period and the VAT return to the tax authorities in an authenticated electronic form. You can obtain the electronic certificate required for this at www.elster.de.