Tax Return for Freelancers in Germany 2026: Forms, Deadlines and the Anlage EÜR

If you filed a tax return as an employee, you remember it as an evening's work and often a refund. The freelance version is a different animal. It has more forms, a profit computation the Finanzamt insists on receiving electronically, quarterly prepayments during the year, and a deadline that has already passed for anyone doing it alone. Here is the 2025 return, form by form, with the dates that apply and what happens when you miss them.

The deadlines under § 149 AO

§ 149 Abs. 2 AO says returns that relate to a calendar year are due "spätestens sieben Monate nach Ablauf des Kalenderjahres". For the 2025 tax year that was 31 July 2026. It is now October. If you have no adviser and have not filed, you are late, and the section below on § 152 AO tells you what that costs.

§ 149 Abs. 3 AO gives you the long deadline if a Steuerberater or a Lohnsteuerhilfeverein prepares the return: "spätestens bis zum letzten Tag des Monats Februar" of the second calendar year after the tax year. For 2025 that is 28 February 2027, a Sunday, so the deadline moves to Monday, 1 March 2027. The extended deadline is the least discussed thing you buy when you hire an adviser; what the rest costs is in our piece on what a tax adviser charges.

For the 2026 tax year the same rule gives 31 July 2027 alone and 29 February 2028 with an adviser. The Finanzamt can also demand a return earlier in specific cases (Abs. 4), but never shorter than the general periods.

One thing that is not in the cycle any more: Corona-era extensions. The 2025 return is the first fully normal one for advised filers.

What being late costs: § 152 AO

The Verspätungszuschlag under § 152 AO has two phases.

Discretionary. Between the deadline and 14 months after the end of the tax year, the Finanzamt can set a surcharge. It usually does not if you file without being asked and the delay is short or excusable.

Mandatory. Once a return is more than 14 months late (19 months in the advised cases), the surcharge applies by law. For the 2025 return that switch flips on 1 March 2027. From then on it is 0.25 % of the assessed tax, after prepayments and withheld amounts are credited, per started month, at least €25 per month, capped at €25,000 in total.

So a freelancer who owes €8,000 in income tax for 2025 and files in April 2027 without an adviser is nine started months late in the mandatory zone: 9 × €25 minimum, or 9 × 0.25 % × €8,000 = €180, whichever is higher, so €225. Not ruinous, but pointless.

The forms, one by one

For a solo freelancer the 2025 return is built from these pieces, all filed together in ELSTER.

1. Hauptvordruck ESt 1 A. The main form: personal data, bank account, Steuer-ID, the totals.
2. Anlage S or Anlage G. Anlage S if you are a Freiberufler under § 18 EStG, Anlage G if the Finanzamt classifies you as Gewerbetreibender. One or the other, not both, unless you really run two separate activities. If you are unsure which you are, Freiberufler or Gewerbe settles it, and the Finanzamt has the last word.
3. Anlage EÜR. The Einnahmenüberschussrechnung: income minus expenses equals profit, for anyone using § 4 Abs. 3 EStG instead of a balance sheet. Freiberufler may always use it. Gewerbetreibende may until they exceed €800,000 turnover or €80,000 profit (§ 141 AO, since 1 January 2025). Under § 60 Abs. 4 EStDV it "ist ... nach amtlich vorgeschriebenem Datensatz durch Datenfernübertragung zu übermitteln": electronic, in the official data set. A hardship exception exists for cases like no internet access; the law names no euro threshold for it, and neither do we.
4. Anlage Vorsorgeaufwand. Health and care insurance, pension contributions, disability and liability premiums. For a freelancer this is where the full health-insurance contribution goes, and it is the biggest deduction most people have.
5. Anlage Sonderausgaben. Church tax, donations, the privately caused part of adviser fees.
6. Umsatzsteuererklärung. The annual VAT return, a separate declaration with its own form, filed by everyone except a Kleinunternehmer under § 19 UStG. Same deadlines as above.
7. Gewerbesteuererklärung. Only if you are a Gewerbetreibender. Freiberufler skip it.

Anlage AV (Riester) exists but most freelancers leave it blank. Anlage N is for employment income; if you freelanced next to a job in 2025, it goes in as well.

What goes into the EÜR

The EÜR is where the return becomes work. Every business income and every deductible expense of 2025, by category, in the Finanzamt's structure. The usual traps are the limits: gifts to clients only to €50 per person and year, entertaining at 70 %, the home-office day allowance, the €800 threshold for immediate write-offs. We keep the full sourced list in the Betriebsausgaben checklist for 2026; this article does not repeat it.

The EÜR is only as good as the bookkeeping behind it. If 2025 lives in a folder of PDFs, the return is a two-day job; if it lives in a tool that already categorises income and expenses, the Anlage EÜR is an export. Accountable (affiliate link) generates the EÜR and files through ELSTER; the 9am Freelancer Toolbox lists the alternatives. ELSTER itself is free and sufficient if you are comfortable typing into forms.

ELSTER in six steps

1. Register at elster.de if you have not. The certificate file arrives by post, so this step alone can take two weeks. Do it before you need it.
2. Start "Einkommensteuererklärung 2025" in Mein ELSTER and add the Anlagen you need: S or G, EÜR, Vorsorgeaufwand, Sonderausgaben, plus N if you were also employed.
3. Fill the EÜR first. Its profit line feeds Anlage S or G. If your tool exports an ELSTER file, import it here.
4. Add the Umsatzsteuererklärung 2025 as a separate return in the same account, unless you are a Kleinunternehmer.
5. Check the plausibility warnings before sending; some catch a missing Steuernummer or a profit that does not match the EÜR.
6. Send, save the transmission receipt, and diary the assessment. You have one month from receipt of the Bescheid to object.

Prepayments: the part that happens during the year

The Finanzamt does not wait for the return. Under § 37 EStG it sets income-tax prepayments due on 10 March, 10 June, 10 September and 10 December, based on your last assessment, once they reach €400 a year and €100 a quarter. After the 2025 return is assessed, the 2026 and 2027 prepayments are set from that profit.

If 2026 is running well below 2025, you can ask in writing for a reduction with a short profit projection; the Finanzamt can adjust, it is not obliged to. If 2026 is running well above, expect a catch-up payment with the 2026 assessment plus higher prepayments after it. How much to set aside and how the Herabsetzungsantrag works is in our guide to tax reserves and prepayments in 2026.

The misconception: "I just add my freelance income to a normal return"

An employee's return is one main form and Anlage N, with the tax already withheld. A freelancer's return is the main form, an electronic profit computation, one of two income Anlagen, usually a second declaration for VAT, and quarterly prepayments the Finanzamt sets on its own. Underestimating that is how people arrive at 31 July with nothing filed and at 1 March 2027 with a surcharge. The full map of freelance taxes, from income tax to Gewerbesteuer, is in our freelancer tax guide.

What to do on Monday

1. If you are unadvised and have not filed for 2025: file this month. The surcharge is still discretionary until 1 March 2027, and an unprompted late filing usually gets none.
2. If you have an adviser: send them the 2025 records now, not in February. The 1 March 2027 deadline is theirs to hit, and January is when every adviser's inbox explodes.
3. Open Mein ELSTER and check your certificate is valid. It expires; a dead certificate in July is the classic reason a return goes in late.
4. Reconcile 2025 in your bookkeeping tool so the Anlage EÜR is an export, not a reconstruction.
5. Look at your 2026 prepayments against your actual 2026 profit. If they are far apart in either direction, write to the Finanzamt before the 10 December instalment.

If the return has reminded you how much of the year went unbilled, a free 9am profile puts you in front of companies across DACH that hire freelancers, and their search covers more than 100 job boards at once.

This article is general information for practitioners and does not replace tax or legal advice.