Claiming a tax refund as a scientist or researcher in Germany

If you are currently working in Germany, then you can get your income tax refund at the end of the tax year. If you want to apply for a refund from the last five years, you can apply now.

This is the deadline you must file your self-assessed income tax return by. If you don’t have your return filed by this date, you could incur penalties and late fees.

1. Simply register with Taxback online
2. Send us your income documents and tell us a little about your expenses!
3. The Taxback team will then do all the paperwork and file your tax return. We will ensure you receive your maximum tax refund.

Thousands of people choose our service because:

• You get the maximum legal refund
• You get free online refund estimations
• You can follow the progress of your application easily online
• You can enjoy peace of mind that you are compliant with German tax law
• If you’ve lost your documents, we can find them for you
• You get 24-hour customer support and tax refund help
• You can talk to us in any language
• Your refund can be sent anywhere in the world and in any currency

Our fee allows us to offer you all the valuable Taxback services you enjoy using, such as:

• Customer support
• Online tracking service in seven languages
• Tax technicians
• Researchers to identify new legal developments to maximise your refunds
• Money sent worldwide and in your local currency

To claim your German tax back, we’ll need your Lohnsteuerbescheinigung and a statement or proof of payment outlining how much you earned in each place you worked while self-employed.

If you’ve mislaid your Lohnsteuerbescheinigung, or you never got it, our document retrieval service can locate replacements for you.

Yes, if you are self-employed, you can claim back work related expenses. Your expenses are a vital part of your tax return and claiming them back could significantly reduce your tax liability. Forgetting to claim them could mean sacrificing hundreds or even thousands of euros in your tax refund.

Yes, the institution where you have worked is obligated to provide your self-employment income details to the tax office, so it’s better for you to file a tax return and claim all expenses that will help reduce your overall tax liability for the year.

On average it takes about 2 to 4 months to get your German tax refund.

This is usually due to delays in the tax office. But don’t worry. The Taxback team is in contact with the German tax office daily and will keep you updated on the progress of your application.

The German tax year runs from 1 January to 31 December.

The best thing to do is to use a tax advisor such as Taxback as this will extend your filing deadline to 31 December of the following year. Filing with a tax advisor means you won’t be charged penalties and late fees.

Just check your online account, or alternatively contact your account manager.

For tax refunds from Germany, we charge 16.5% + handling fee of the refund received, subject to a minimum fee of €50 + handling fee. Our tax calculator however will always be available to you as a free, no obligation tool for estimating your tax refund.

A tax return is a document outlining your taxation liability while a tax refund is the money returned to you if you’ve made an overpayment for a certain tax. We file your tax return in order to apply for your tax refund.

This is the official government form that you receive from your employer at the end of the tax year which outlines your earnings and the amount of tax you paid in that year.

That depends on the individual circumstances of your case, but we assure you we will get you the maximum legal tax refund possible. Our customers get back €1,020 on average.

The type and number of expenses you can claim back will depend on your job. Some expenses which you could claim back include:

• Travel expenses
• Work uniform/clothing expenses
• Training costs
• Accommodation expenses

Our estimation is based on years of tax calculations, so it’s a pretty close estimate of what you’ll get back, but unfortunately, it’s not guaranteed. However, we will make sure to get you back the biggest tax refund legally possible by completely analysing your case and applying all tax deductions and benefits you’re entitled to.

We receive your documents, and our certified accountant checks them to ensure they’re tax complaint. Then we send them to the German tax office. This process typically takes a week.
Once the tax office has your application, it takes them 7 to 15 weeks to process your application and send your tax refund on to us. Once we have your refund, we’ll contact you to set up the easiest way to send it to you.

Yes! Every tax office is set up to receive independent applications. But let’s face it, applying for a German tax refund can be a real hassle! This is especially the case if you’re not familiar with German tax law and codes.
So why not let the German tax experts do all the work for you. We’ll help you to file your tax return easily online.