Your tax return.
Without the tax jargon.

Not everyone does. You must file if: you received wage-replacement benefits (Kurzarbeitergeld, Elterngeld, ALG I) over €410, you had multiple employers, you earned additional income (rental, freelance, investments) over €410, or you are in Steuerklasse 3 while your spouse is in Steuerklasse 5. If none apply, filing is still worth doing voluntarily - most people get money back. Employees who received a refund got back more than €1,000 on average in recent years (Federal Statistical Office, refund cases only).

For the 2025 tax year: self-filers must submit by 31 July 2026. With a Steuerberater or Lohnsteuerhilfeverein the deadline extends to 1 March 2027. Voluntary filers have 4 years - until 31 December 2029 for 2025.

Entering your data and calculating your expected refund is completely free - with no time limit. Only when you actually submit your return do you pay a one-time €17.99 for exactly that return. No subscription, no hidden costs.

You need no ELSTER knowledge: you answer understandable questions in plain language and SimplyTax translates your entries into the official forms (Anlage N, Anlage Kind, Anlage KAP, etc.). To transmit the return you do need your own free ELSTER certificate, a one-time registration at elster.de (see the question about the ELSTER certificate below). We guide you through it. SimplyTax then transmits the return electronically to your tax office via the official ELSTER interface.

Your data is transmitted encrypted and stored in a European database (GDPR-compliant). Receipts live in private, access-protected storage; downloads run via short-lived signed links. We never see payment data - payments are handled by a certified payment provider.

For anyone in Germany who has employment income - whether you are a long-term resident or new to the country. Concretely: employees and workers, married couples (all five marital-status situations including Witwensplitting), families with children, investors with capital income including foreign brokers, and landlords. Wage-replacement benefits (Kurzarbeitergeld, Elterngeld), double household (doppelte Haushaltsführung), and support payments to relatives abroad are all covered. The full interface is available in German and English, so both native German speakers and international residents can use it comfortably - no ELSTER knowledge or prior tax knowledge required (to submit you only need a free ELSTER certificate, and we guide you through it). Not yet supported: self-employment/freelance income, complex cross-border employment situations, and business income - if any of these apply to you, please use a full-service alternative or a tax advisor for now.

If mail arrives from the Finanzamt, you log the inquiry in SimplyTax, write your answer and send it back electronically - requested receipts can be submitted digitally right away. Everything stays documented in one place.

Only you have access to your own tax data - not other users, and not our support staff without your explicit request. Your entries stay stored for as long as your account exists, so you can return to a filing in later years; you can request deletion of your account and its data at any time from within the app.

SimplyTax calculates carefully and checks your entries for completeness before submission, but can't guarantee the Finanzamt's final decision or catch every possible individual circumstance - the estimate shown is exactly that, an estimate. For complex situations, a Steuerberater's judgment remains the final word.

It's your digital signature for the tax office - the official way the Finanzamt confirms a return really came from you, just like a signature on paper. It's issued for free by Germany's tax authority itself, not by us, and with the online ID card it is often ready quickly, otherwise usually after 5 to 10 days (part of the confirmation arrives by post). You only set it up once, and we walk you through it right when you need it - you can even pay and come back to finish submitting later, once it's ready. See the full step-by-step guide ↗

No. We only email you about your own tax filing - confirmations, reminders about your own deadlines, and account-related notices. Your data is never sold or used for advertising.

If your tax return has already been successfully submitted to the Finanzamt, no refund is possible - once a submission goes through, that cannot be undone or reversed. If you paid but your return was not successfully submitted, for example because of a technical problem, you're entitled to a full refund. Contact support and this will be sorted out.