What your tax advisor needs at year end
At year end your tax advisor needs three things at the core: all income with its invoices, all expenses with their receipts and the bank statements that back up both. On top come a few records that matter only once a year, for fixed assets, the home office and insurance. The less is missing, the fewer follow-up questions come. Often it also costs less. It is most relaxed if you tidy up briefly every month during the year: match receipts, reconcile payments, look at open invoices. Then the turn of the year is just one last look.
The checklist
Income
- All invoices issued in the year, numbered without gaps. If a number is missing, write down briefly why.
- Cancellation invoices and corrections, so the totals can be traced.
- Open items: a list of the invoices still unpaid on December 31. In the EÜR they count only in the year of payment (§ 11 Abs. 1 EStG). Under accrual accounting, though, you have already paid the VAT on them.
- Payouts from platforms with their statements, if you sell through such services.
Expenses
- All receipts with date, amount and purpose. For business meals, the occasion and the participants belong with them (§ 4 Abs. 5 Satz 1 Nr. 2 EStG).
- Fixed assets: everything you use over several years, with purchase date, price and useful life. How depreciation works is explained in the guide on assets and depreciation.
- Home office: for the daily allowance of €6, at most €1,260 a year (§ 4 Abs. 5 Satz 1 Nr. 6c EStG), you note the days on which you mainly worked at home. More in the guide on the home office deduction.
- Trips and travel: a logbook or a list of business trips with date, destination and purpose. For trips to your place of business, the commuting allowance has been €0.38 from the first kilometer since 2026 (§ 4 Abs. 5 Satz 1 Nr. 6 with § 9 Abs. 1 Satz 3 Nr. 4 EStG).
Bank and payments
- Bank statements of all business accounts for all twelve months, without gaps.
- Ten-day rule: regular payments that are due and paid between December 22 and January 10, such as rent or the VAT prepayment, belong to the year they are meant for (§ 11 EStG). Mark them so they end up in the right year. The details are in the guide on the EÜR.
Taxes, insurance and prepayments
- Notices on income tax prepayments. They are due on March 10, June 10, September 10 and December 10 (§ 37 Abs. 1 EStG).
- VAT: your VAT returns of the year and, if you file monthly with a permanent extension, the special prepayment. It is credited in the last VAT return of the year (§ 48 UStDV). If you supply businesses in other EU countries, your EC sales lists (Zusammenfassende Meldung) belong with it too (§ 18a UStG).
- Insurance: the contribution statements for health, long-term care and pension insurance. They count as special expenses in the income tax return (§ 10 EStG). Business insurance such as professional liability is a business expense instead (§ 4 Abs. 4 EStG).
If your tax advisor works with DATEV, they prefer to take entries and receipts directly in DATEV format. How that works is in the guide on the DATEV export.
Which returns follow
From these documents, the self-employed usually file three returns:
| Return | Basis | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Annual VAT return | § 18 Abs. 3 UStG | under the small business rule only if the tax office asks for it |
| Anlage EÜR | § 60 Abs. 4 EStDV | electronic, part of the income tax return |
| Income tax return | § 149 AO | with Anlage S (freelance) or Anlage G (trade) |
A trade adds the trade tax return, for a sole proprietor usually only once trade income exceeds €24,500 or when the tax office asks for it (§ 25 GewStDV). If the annual VAT return comes to more than the sum of your VAT returns, the balance is due one month after filing (§ 18 Abs. 4 UStG).
The deadlines
The deadlines depend on whether you file yourself or engage a tax advisor (§ 149 Abs. 2 and 3 AO). If a deadline falls on a weekend or public holiday, the next working day applies (§ 108 Abs. 3 AO).
| Year | Without a tax advisor | With a tax advisor |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | July 31, 2026 (passed) | March 1, 2027 |
| 2026 | August 2, 2027 | February 29, 2028 |
The extensions under Art. 97 § 36 EGAO applied to the years 2019 to 2024. For 2025 the regular deadlines apply again. The regular end with a tax advisor would be February 28, 2027, a Sunday. For 2026, July 31, 2027 falls on a Saturday. The tax office can also ask for returns earlier (§ 149 Abs. 4 AO). If you receive such a letter, the date in it applies.
How long you keep everything
Since 2025 you keep invoices and other accounting receipts for eight years, books, records and annual accounts for ten years (§ 147 Abs. 3 AO). The period starts at the end of the calendar year in which the document was created. So you may delete receipts from 2026 at the earliest at the start of 2035, provided they are not still needed for an open tax assessment. More in the guide on retention periods.
This guide explains the rules in general and is not tax advice.
Common questions
When should I hand in my documents?
As early as you can, ideally in the first months of the new year. The long deadline with a tax advisor is meant for filing the return, not for collecting receipts. Many tax advisors give you a date of their own.
Are copies or photos of receipts enough?
For receipts you got on paper, a proper digital image is enough if you capture and keep it according to the GoBD (§ 147 Abs. 2 AO). Invoices you received electronically are kept in their electronic form, so for an e-invoice the XML file.
What do I do with invoices that are still open?
List them and hand over the list. If a claim cannot be recovered any more, discuss with your tax advisor whether you can write it off and correct the VAT.
Do I need to do anything differently under the small business rule?
The checklist stays almost the same, only VAT drops out. You file an annual VAT return for years from 2024 only if the tax office asks you to.