{"id":4162,"date":"2022-09-21T17:31:26","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T15:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.accountable.de\/blog\/how-to-pay-vat-as-a-freelancer-in-germany\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T17:53:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T15:53:46","slug":"vat-payment-freelancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.accountable.de\/en\/blog\/vat-payment-freelancer\/","title":{"rendered":"How to pay VAT as a freelancer in Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"font-inter text-base leading-relaxed mb-4 first-of-type:mt-0 text-black wp-block-paragraph\">Self-employed people have to think about a lot when it comes to the regular VAT return. Not only the preparation and the submission to the Finanzamt (tax office) are important, of course the payment must not be forgotten, too. Here we explain how to pay the VAT due correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"how-much-vat-do-i-have-to-pay\" class=\"wp-block-heading font-degular scroll-mt-32\">How much VAT do I have to pay?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"font-inter text-base leading-relaxed mb-4 first-of-type:mt-0 text-black wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s actually quite simple: The amount is calculated from the VAT that you charge your clients. From this, you subtract the VAT that you yourself have paid for your business expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"font-inter text-base leading-relaxed mb-4 first-of-type:mt-0 text-black wp-block-paragraph\">Self-employed persons must regularly pay VAT to the Finanzamt (unless they are exempt from this obligation under the <a class=\"font-inter text-purple underline underline-offset-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.accountable.de\/en\/blog\/kleinunternehmer-limit\/\">Kleinunternehmerregelung<\/a>, small business rule). This means that as a self-employed person you have to include the VAT on your invoices to your customers. You must then transfer these amounts to the Finanzamt. At the same time, you can claim the VAT that you have paid for professional expenses from the Finanzamt. You then submit expenses and income together in the <a class=\"font-inter text-purple underline underline-offset-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.accountable.de\/en\/blog\/vat-return-vorauszahlungssoll\/\">Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung<\/a> (VAT return). You must submit this digitally on a monthly or quarterly basis, depending on your profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"font-inter text-base leading-relaxed mb-4 first-of-type:mt-0 text-black wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\ud83d\udca1In order to submit your VAT return, you can simply <a class=\"font-inter text-purple underline underline-offset-1\" href=\"https:\/\/accountable.app.link\/H3orPmEb0ab\">use a tax solution like Accountable<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"how-to-pay-vat-to-the-finanzamt\" class=\"wp-block-heading font-degular scroll-mt-32\">How to pay VAT to the Finanzamt?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"font-inter text-base leading-relaxed mb-4 first-of-type:mt-0 text-black wp-block-paragraph\">The calculated amount, which you finally have to pay, you then transfer directly to the account of your responsible Finanzamt, stating your tax number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"font-inter text-base leading-relaxed mb-4 first-of-type:mt-0 text-black wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tipp from Accountable \ud83d\udca1:<\/strong> <a class=\"font-inter text-purple underline underline-offset-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.accountable.de\/en\/\">Accountable<\/a> automatically produces the VAT return for you. You also see how much you have to pay and the correct bank details of your Finanzamt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"what-is-the-deadline-for-the-vat-payment\" class=\"wp-block-heading font-degular scroll-mt-32\">What is the deadline for the VAT payment?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"font-inter text-base leading-relaxed mb-4 first-of-type:mt-0 text-black wp-block-paragraph\">Depending on what your Finanzamt tells you, you must submit and pay the VAT return <strong>monthly or quarterly<\/strong>. The deadline is always the 10th day of the following month. <strong>This deadline refers to both the submission and the payment of the sales tax.<\/strong> If the 10th falls on a weekend or holiday, the last day of the deadline is the next working day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"font-inter text-base leading-relaxed mb-4 first-of-type:mt-0 text-black wp-block-paragraph\">If you submit the VAT return monthly, you must also have paid it by the 10th day of the following month. If you have to submit it quarterly, the deadline is, for example, April 10 for the first quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"when-do-i-get-vat-back\" class=\"wp-block-heading font-degular scroll-mt-32\">When do I get VAT back?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"font-inter text-base leading-relaxed mb-4 first-of-type:mt-0 text-black wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, it is also possible that you have no income from self-employment in a certain period of time, or you have more expenses than income. Especially if you are still at the beginning of your self-employment, you probably have little income but already some professional expenses. Also, if you have many customers abroad, you also do not charge VAT, but you can still claim VAT for your own expenses in Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"font-inter text-base leading-relaxed mb-4 first-of-type:mt-0 text-black wp-block-paragraph\">In this case, you still have to submit your VAT return. However, you will then get money back from the Finanzamt. As a rule, the Finanzamt transfers the amount to be refunded quite quickly, in one to three weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Self-employed people have to think about a lot when it comes to the regular VAT return. Not only the preparation and the submission to the Finanzamt (tax office) are important, of course the payment must not be forgotten, too. Here we explain how to pay the VAT due correctly. How much VAT do I have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":1086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[123,323],"class_list":["post-4162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vat","tag-finanzamt-en","tag-vat"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to pay VAT as a freelancer in Germany | Accountable<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here you can find out how and where you actually pay your VAT and when you get money back from the Finanzamt for your VAT return.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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