Your 2026 VAT filing rhythm is decided by your 2025 VAT bill. Above €9,000 you file monthly, at or below it quarterly, and at €2,000 or less the Finanzamt can release you from advance returns altogether. The deadline is always the 10th of the following month. A Dauerfristverlängerung buys you one extra month; monthly filers pay a deposit of one eleventh of last year's VAT for it, quarterly filers pay nothing. Freiberufler can always tax on a cash basis, so VAT is due when the client pays. The old thresholds of €7,500 and €600,000 are gone.
Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung is the one tax task that comes back every month or every quarter, and it is the one where most late fees arise, because the deadline never moves for you. The rules themselves are short. What trips people up is that half the guides online still quote the pre-2025 numbers, and that the extension everyone recommends has a price tag for monthly filers.
If you are a Kleinunternehmer under § 19 UStG, none of this applies to you; whether that should stay so in 2027 is a different question, answered in Kleinunternehmer or Regelbesteuerung.
Monthly, quarterly or annual: the €9,000 and €2,000 lines
§ 18 Abs. 2 UStG makes the calendar quarter the default period. Two thresholds move you off it, both measured on the VAT you owed for the previous calendar year, meaning your net Zahllast after Vorsteuer, not your turnover:
- More than €9,000: monthly returns.
- €2,000 or less: the Finanzamt can release you from Voranmeldungen and Vorauszahlungen entirely. You then file only the annual return.
- In between: quarterly.
The figures a lot of pages still print, €7,500 for monthly filing and €1,000 for the exemption, were replaced on 1 January 2025. If your adviser or your software template still says €7,500, it is out of date.
Two edge cases. If your 2025 return showed a Vorsteuer surplus of more than €9,000, so the Finanzamt owed you money, Abs. 2a lets you choose monthly filing to get refunds faster. And the founder rule: Satz 4 obliges new businesses to file monthly in the start year and the following year, but Satz 6 suspends that rule for 2021 to 2026. As the law stands on the writing date, a business started in 2026 is classed by its expected VAT, annualised. Unless the suspension is extended, the monthly obligation for founders returns for 2027 starts.
The deadline is the 10th, and payment is due the same day
The return is due on the 10th day after the end of the period: 10 February for January, 10 April for the first quarter. The tax is due the same day. § 240 AO gives bank transfers a three-day grace period before a Säumniszuschlag applies; the filing deadline has no such grace.
What a late filing costs is not the fixed 0.25% per month that applies to annual returns. For Voranmeldungen, § 152 Abs. 8 AO leaves the surcharge to the Finanzamt's judgement based on how long, how often and how much, capped at €25,000. A first slip usually costs nothing; a pattern costs. Late payment is mechanical: 1% of the outstanding amount, rounded down to the nearest €50, for every started month.
Dauerfristverlängerung: one month more, for a deposit
§ 46 UStDV obliges the Finanzamt to extend both the filing and the payment deadline by one month on application, unless the tax claim appears at risk. January's return is then due on 10 March, the first quarter's on 10 May. The application goes through ELSTER as its own form and must arrive by the deadline of the first Voranmeldung it should cover (§ 48 UStDV): 10 February for monthly filers, 10 April for quarterly filers. Once granted it runs until you or the Finanzamt end it.
The price applies to monthly filers only. § 47 UStDV requires a Sondervorauszahlung of one eleventh of the sum of last year's Vorauszahlungen, declared and paid with the application each year. If you paid €13,200 in VAT across 2025, the deposit for 2026 is €1,200. It is not lost: it is credited in the return for the last period of the year, so December's payment shrinks by the same amount. In cash terms you lend the Finanzamt one month of VAT for eleven months. Quarterly filers get the extension free.
Is it worth it? For monthly filers who close their books in the second week of the month, yes, because the alternative is filing on estimates and correcting later. For a freelancer who invoices five clients a month and reconciles in two hours, the deposit buys little. Decide by your bookkeeping rhythm, not by habit.
Istversteuerung: pay VAT when you are paid
By default VAT is due for the period in which you delivered the service, whether or not the client has paid (Sollversteuerung). § 20 UStG lets the Finanzamt permit cash-basis taxation on application if prior-year turnover did not exceed €800,000, and for Freiberufler under § 18 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 EStG at any turnover. The threshold was €600,000 until the end of 2024; if you were refused in the past for exceeding it, apply again.
For a freelancer this is the single most useful line in the whole procedure. With Sollversteuerung, a €10,000 invoice in March means €1,900 due on 10 April even if the client pays in June. With Istversteuerung the €1,900 is due after the money arrives. Ask for it in the Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung when you register, or with a one-line letter to your Finanzamt later.
Filing in ELSTER, in practice
Every return follows the same shape: net turnover at 19% and at 7%, tax-free turnover (for instance reverse-charge services to EU clients, which you still report), the Vorsteuer from your purchase invoices, and the resulting payment or refund. Two things matter more than the form. First, the invoices behind the numbers must be compliant, otherwise the Vorsteuer is at risk in an audit; the mandatory fields are in our guide to writing invoices. Second, cross-border work has its own lines and a separate Zusammenfassende Meldung, covered in invoicing EU and non-EU clients.
If you keep your books in a tool that talks to ELSTER, the return is a review step rather than a data-entry task. Accountable (affiliate link) builds the Voranmeldung from your recorded invoices and submits it; the 9am Freelancer Toolbox lists alternatives that do the same.
What to do on Monday
- Look up your 2025 VAT Zahllast in last year's annual return. Above €9,000: monthly. €2,000 or less: ask the Finanzamt in writing to release you from Voranmeldungen.
- Check whether you have Istversteuerung. If your Bescheid or Fragebogen does not say so, send the one-line application this week.
- If you file monthly and close your books late, apply for the Dauerfristverlängerung before 10 February, and budget one eleventh of last year's VAT as the deposit.
- Put every 10th of the month in your calendar with a reminder two working days ahead. The Säumniszuschlag starts at 1% per month, and it does not negotiate.
- Retire any template, checklist or note that still says €7,500 or €600,000.
If the returns are getting bigger because the client list is, that is the good kind of problem. A free 9am profile keeps that list growing with companies across DACH that hire freelancers.
This article is general information for practitioners and does not replace tax or legal advice.
