Tax submit help

No, there is no such free service:
Only certified tax consultants are allowed to help with tax submissions - and they have a fixed fee schedule that applies to all. Depending on your personal circumstances and types of income, preparing a tax declaration by a professional will cost you €400 - 1000 (but can save you a lot more in exploiting tax loopholes that you otherwise would not have known about).
Alternatively (and if you fulfill certain conditions), you could join a tax assistance society ("Lohnsteuerhilfeverein") which start at around €250 yearly fee.
As German tax mattrs are extremely complicated - and declaring wrongly can be a criminal offense! - I strongly recommend you choose one of these two options!

A Lohnsteuerehilfeverein is a club for giving advice on tax filing. They are common in most communities. They're generally cheaper than using a tax advisor (Steuerberater). The following information is taken from the first link below. Both links gives comprehensive information about teh subject. (German only). They are for people who get a salary and NOT for self-employed or business owners. Also excluded are an individual or couple receiving more than 26,000 Euros in rent or non-earned income (interest, dividends and capital gains). The membership fee is based on one's income and can range from 50 to 400 Euros a year.

https://www.finanztip.de/lohnsteuerhilfeverein/https://www.aktuell-verein.de/lohnsteue … in/kosten/

From my own knowledge of tax reporting in Germany I have to disagree slightly with Beppi's statement that “declaring wrong is a criminal offense”. Not really, there of lots of situations where one could make an honest mistake which if caught will be expected to be corrected but not be seen as criminal. Criminality happens when one deliberately gives false information or omits information they were required to give. There are also situations where the law is not really clear and tax payers are allowed to take an interpretation that gives them the benefit of the doubt. The tax authorities can then decide otherwise but not penalize someone in this case unless it is clearly something not allowed.

Especially when one does the taxes themselves, they almost expect one to make some slight mistakes. What one cannot do is to do the filing themselves when they haven't a clue, to do things clearly wrong and then say they didn't know better. One is allowed to do their own taxes but are expected to get professional help if they don't know how to do it.

I agree with Beppi's view that most foreigners are advised to get help but if one is good with such matters and reaches a good level of German they might be able to eventually do it themselves. I paid the outrageous fees for a tax adviser for my first 2 years and since then simply copied what they did using a tax preparation program. Such things depend on the complexity of one's situation but for most people their situation doesn't really change year to year. Thus copying what is done once from an expert, if one understands the underlying concepts, is possible.

Hello all,I find this topic very interesting. my name is Maria and I moved o Hamburg in October last year so now i may do the declaration of the 3 months october-december 2018. My husband is German however these three months he was working for Brussels employer. SO i may do the tax declaration for this period by myself I am hesitating to do it with an advisor ( however i am not sure if it is worthy for such a short period) or to fill by myself with help from my husband. I wouldnt have issues with the language however somethings my husband was not aware as nto being ' an expat' in his own country. I heard from other colleagues who moved to Germany that first year you may be entittle to get money back from the furniture for the appartment ,for example? Is that correct ? Which more things should i consider in the declaration of the first year?

If (and only if) the move was due to job reasons, all costs related to the move can be deducted from taxable income.

Hello Beppi, Thanks for your answer ! I was adviced also that if i have a private teacher for german lessons also i should put in the tax declaration. Is that only the first year or also later on?

I have never heard that the cost of a private language teacher (or any language lessons) can be offset from taxable income. But tax rules here are so convoluted that only a professional expert knows most or all of it. SoI suggest engaging one!

shayiru wrote:

Hello Beppi, Thanks for your answer ! I was adviced also that if i have a private teacher for german lessons also i should put in the tax declaration. Is that only the first year or also later on?

I agree with Beppi that such a deduction sounds very unlikely. One can deduct business expenses. Somethings like moving expenses can sometimes be deducted if one moves to take a new job. Buying suits because you have to be properly dressed as a businessman are not, particularly because they can also have private usage. Professional training and courses in one's field are tax deductible. I Googled it and see that language courses (or a teacher) would be tax deductible if it is purely for a business need. Thus someone in Germany that will have to do business with China could deduct Chinese lessons.  Theoretically, one might argue that one has to learn German for their work. But one needs this ability privately living in Germany anyway. But I agree that you would have to ask a tax-advisor for a definitive answer.

Here is a link about this subject (German only): 
https://www.vlh.de/arbeiten-pendeln/ber … etzen.html

Hello again, thanks for answers.
Indeed i need German for my work. Howeve rI realized I did not pay a course the time i that i moved here from 2018 , that was only october-december since i had done an online course which i started before i moved.
In January 2019 I registered for the next level i could try for that next year declaration. I managed to register in the Elster and appply for the pre-fill version . However I am not sure where to add the costs related to the moving? is there specific section fro that?