Questionnaire Financial Authorities

The Questionnaire Financial Authorities is important. The registration at the Financial Authorities starts with filling out the questionnaire-form. Addresses, number of employees, estimated income, VAT details etc. need to be filled out so the local tax office can categorize your business. Following that, the tax office will send you your local tax number. You need this number for invoicing your customers and for applying for a VAT ID number.

Let me help you in advance with a few essentials:

1. Questionnaire Financial Authorities – Tax number

Of course you cannot fill out this because you do not have a tax number so far.

2. Questionnaire Financial Authorities – Estimated income

The income is not the turnover but the profit. So you subtract the costs from the estimated „incoming money“. You do not have to put anything in the fields „Sonderausgaben“ and the other fields. Please be aware that the background for these fields is to estimate your taxes for the year and send you a prepayment notice. So if you are too optimistic you might have to pay taxes before you even will have received the first payments from your customers.

3. Questionnaire Financial Authorities – Employees

If you plan to hire employees but you are not 100% sure you should rather put none in these fields. Otherwise, the Financial Authorities will expect your first monthly wage tax return right away and might even estimate your wage tax if you do not react to the reminder.

4. Questionnaire Financial Authorities – VAT

The VAT part is extremely complicated. If the part of your turnover which is liable to German VAT ist not higher than EUR 17,500 you will be considered a Non-entrepreneur except if you apply to be a Full-entrepreneur. You should not decide yourself without disussing the pro and contras with a tax consultant.

If you are a Full-entrepreneur you will have to file monthly VAT returns for the first two years.

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