Finding the Competent Tax Office: Where Should I Turn?

Germany has more than 500 tax offices, which process, among other things, the questionnaire for tax registration and income tax returns. Most responsibilities are divided on a regional basis. This means that your local tax office handles your tax affairs.

There are, however, a few special rules to bear in mind. For example, there may be differences between the tax offices responsible for income tax and trade tax returns. This is because in some cases different municipalities receive the respective taxes. For income tax, the relevant factor is your place of residence; for trade tax, it is the location of your place of business. We explain this in the sections below!

For income tax purposes, only your place of residence is relevant. It makes no difference where you earn your income. Do you work as a freelancer in an office in Berlin-Mitte but live in Potsdam? In that case, you submit your income tax return to the Potsdam tax authority.

This mechanism is known as the residence principle (Wohnortprinzip). The principle applies to all types of income, including income from freelance, self-employed, and employed work. It covers all profits and wages for which you pay income tax or wage tax.

But how do you find out which tax office is responsible? This is important, for example, when you are about to become a freelancer. This point should be high on your checklist so that you can submit the questionnaire for tax registration in good time.

Your best option is to use the search function provided by the Federal Central Tax Office

(https://www.bzst.de/DE/Service/Behoerdenwegweiser/Finanzamtsuche/finanzamtsuche_node.html).

Enter your town or postcode in the search field. Larger cities may have several tax offices. Check which authority is responsible for your district.

Society is becoming more mobile, and moving house is a fact of life for many people. Taxpayers frequently leave their tax office district — moving, for example, from Berlin to the surrounding Brandenburg area. The good news: as far as the tax office is concerned, the procedure is straightforward. Simply submit your future tax returns to the competent authority at your new place of residence — just select the corresponding tax office in the Elster online form or in your tax software!

This also applies to tax returns that relate to income earned at your previous place of residence. Your point of contact is the local tax office where you currently live. Did you move in 2023 and want to submit the tax return for 2022? The tax authority at your new address will process your data.

If you live in several places, your centre of life (Lebensmittelpunkt) is decisive. As a rule, this is the place of residence where you are registered as having your principal home.

For married persons, a different rule may apply. In that case, what matters is where the family resides for the greater part of the time. This question determines the family domicile (Familienwohnsitz): the local tax office is your point of contact, even if you spend most of your time elsewhere.

The situation becomes complex if you separate from your spouse. It is best to consult a competent tax adviser in this case!

The residence principle applies to income tax — the rules are different for trade tax, corporation tax, and VAT:

- Trade tax: You send the trade tax return to the tax office responsible for the location of your place of business. If you have several places of business, the relevant factor is which of them plays the most significant economic role.

- Corporation tax: The key factor is where the management of the business is located.

- VAT: Here, the relevant factor is the tax office district in which you generate all or most of your turnover. For many freelancers, this depends on the location of their office.

As a consequence, different tax offices may be responsible for different tax matters.

https://www.vlh.de/wissen-service/steuer-abc/wie-finde-ich-das-fuer-mich-zustaendige-finanzamt.html

https://www.finanzamt.nrw.de/steuerinfos/weitere-themen/zustaendiges-finanzamt/zustaendiges-finanzamt-fuer-unternehmenssteuern