Income Tax - Filing a return (mandatory assessment)

• Filing deadline If you are required to file a return, you must submit your income tax return (Einkommensteuererklärung) by 31 July of the following year (for 2024, this means by 31 July 2025). The Finanzamt (tax office) can grant you an extension of the deadline on request. You can submit the request by post, fax, email or telephone. Please include the following information: • name, • tax number (Steuernummer) or ID number, • the year concerned, • the deadline requested, • reason. If the Finanzamt grants you the extension, you will not receive a reply unless you expressly request one. If the tax return is prepared by a Steuerberater (tax advisor) or Lohnsteuerhilfeverein (income tax assistance association), it can be submitted by the last day of February of the calendar year following the next calendar year. As an exception to this, for the 2023 tax period an extended deadline of 02.06.2025 still applies for the last time, and for the 2024 tax period an extended deadline of 30.04.2026 applies, due to the burdens caused by the Corona pandemic. The Finanzamt also has the option of requesting the income tax return earlier than the regular filing deadlines. • Permitted methods of submitting tax returns You can submit the income tax return to the Finanzamt electronically, by post, or in person. If you earned income from freelance, commercial, or agricultural and forestry activity, you must submit the income tax return electronically, authenticated via Mein ELSTER. Information on the online procedure can be found under "Required documents". Returns submitted on paper are treated as not submitted, except in particular cases of hardship.

Income tax return forms Notes on the online procedure • Register on Mein ELSTER. You will receive an electronic certificate for authentication. Please note that registration can take up to two weeks. • 2. Submit the income tax return authenticated either via Mein ELSTER or via software from a commercial provider of your choice. Notes on filing the tax return on paper • The forms needed for an income tax return on paper are available free of charge from the Berlin Finanzämter (tax offices). Postal delivery is only possible, for cost reasons, if you send a stamped envelope addressed to yourself (DIN C5), stating the forms you need, to your Finanzamt. • Alternatively, you can fill in the forms online: Häufig genutzte Formulare (frequently used forms) > Steuern (taxes) > Steuerformulare (tax forms) > Einkommensteuer (income tax), then print them out and submit them on paper to your Finanzamt or send them by post. Submitting the forms to the Finanzamt by email is not possible. • Receipts Under the Gesetz zur Modernisierung des Besteuerungsverfahrens (Act on the Modernization of the Taxation Procedure), you have no longer been required to attach receipts to your tax return since 2017. Where receipts are needed to process the tax return, the Finanzamt will request them if necessary. Please keep your receipts and submit them only upon request. There are the following exceptions: • Proof required when claiming the lump-sum allowance for people with disabilities for the first time, or when circumstances change; • Tax certificates for creditable capital gains tax (Kapitalertragsteuer), unless you request a more-favorable-treatment check (Günstigerprüfung) for all capital gains and/or a review of the tax withholding for certain capital gains; • Certificates for creditable foreign taxes (§ 68b EStDV). Please keep documents and receipts relating to tax returns until the appeal period (Einspruchsfrist) has expired, or, if an appeal (Einspruch) or legal action has been filed, until the appeal proceedings are finally concluded. Receipts relevant to several years (e.g. medical certificates) should be kept correspondingly longer. Donation receipts (Zuwendungsbestätigungen, e.g. proof of donations) must be kept until one year after the tax assessment notice (Steuerfestsetzung) has been issued (§ 50 para. 8 EStDV).

• Submission on paper: forms on the website of the Bundesfinanzministerium (Federal Ministry of Finance) www.formulare-bfinv.de/ffw/action/invoke.do?id=est

none

• Einkommensteuergesetz (EStG) (Income Tax Act) www.gesetze-im-internet.de/estg/ • Einkommensteuer-Durchführungsverordnung (EStDV) (Income Tax Implementation Regulation) www.gesetze-im-internet.de/estdv_1955/

Under statutory provisions, entities subject to reporting obligations (e.g. employers, insurers and other institutions) must electronically transmit the previous year's tax data to the tax administration by the end of February each year, so that it can be taken into account for the assessment. This data includes, for example, Lohnsteuerbescheinigungen (wage tax certificates), Rentenbezugsmitteilungen (pension payment notifications), and contribution data for retirement provision (Riester/Rürup pension schemes) and for health and long-term care insurance. Nationwide, the Finanzämter (tax offices) generally have the tax data they need to process income tax returns available by March of the following year. The Berlin tax offices can therefore not begin the final processing of income tax returns and the dispatch of Einkommensteuerbescheide (income tax assessments) before mid-March of the following year. Because the software is provided centrally, the Berlin tax offices are also unable to process separately those tax returns for which no electronic tax data is required, or for which such data is already available earlier. Processing is also generally carried out in the order in which tax returns are received. It has been agreed with the Berlin tax offices that the average processing time for income tax returns is between 7 and 9 weeks, regardless of whether they were submitted on paper or via Mein ELSTER (Germany's online tax portal). Depending on the scope and content of the tax return, the processing time may vary in individual cases.

• Frequently asked questions on income and wage tax (Senatsverwaltung für Finanzen, Senate Department for Finance) www.berlin.de/sen/finanzen/steuern/informationen-fuer-steuer • Frequently asked questions on tax brackets (Senatsverwaltung für Finanzen, Senate Department for Finance) www.berlin.de/sen/finanzen/steuern/informationen-fuer-steuer • Frequently asked questions on the Faktorverfahren (factor method for splitting spouses' tax brackets) (Senatsverwaltung für Finanzen, Senate Department for Finance) www.berlin.de/sen/finanzen/steuern/informationen-fuer-steuer • Income tax - filing a voluntary tax return (Antragsveranlagung, voluntary assessment) (service) service.berlin.de/dienstleistung/325685/

As a rule, the Finanzamt (tax office) of your place of residence is responsible.