You must authenticate your business tax return and submit it electronically to the tax office. This also applies to the associated
- Tax balance sheet or commercial balance sheet with reconciliation statement and
- Profit and loss accounts.
Authentication is carried out by means of the Elster certificate. This certificate has the function of an electronic signature and serves security purposes. The certificate is intended to
- Confidentiality
- The identity of the sender and
- Unchangeability of the data content
of the data sent.
To obtain a certificate, you must register with My ELSTER. This requires several steps (e.g. sending the registration data, sending a confirmation e-mail by My ELSTER, sending the activation code by post). Register in good time so that you can submit your tax return on time. The programme My ELSTER is available to you free of charge for electronic submission.
The tax office calculates the taxable amount. This amounts to a uniform 3.5 per cent of the trade income for all trade businesses.
In the case of natural persons and partnerships, the tax office reduces the trade income beforehand by the tax-free amount of 24,500 euros. In addition, 4 times the trade tax assessment amount (up to and including 2019: 3.8 times the trade tax assessment amount) is credited against income tax as part of a maximum amount calculation.
The tax office sends the tax assessment amount to you and the municipality in which you have your place of business.
The municipality then multiplies the calculated tax assessment amount by an assessment rate. The result is the trade tax amount, which is assessed to you in a notice. The assessment rate varies from municipality to municipality, but is at least 200 per cent.
Note: The tax office divides the tax assessment amount according to a certain distribution key if you
- a commercial enterprise
- with several establishments
- in different municipalities
in different municipalities. The trade tax is then levied in partial amounts by the individual municipalities. The same applies if you have moved your business to another municipality within one year.