Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung made simple for freelancers in Germany - 2025 Guide

Whether you’ve already filed advance VAT declarations (Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung) or are doing it for the first time, it’s always stressful. "Did I record the Reverse Charge transaction correctly?" "Will Finanzamt be suspicious about the high input tax this month?" - these are common concerns that can bother even experienced self-filers. 

We built Norman to make tax filing stress-free through simplicity and clarity. This guide will show you how to submit an advance VAT declaration in minutes, report complex intra-EU trade, and make corrections if you forgot to report a transaction. 

Beginner level: How to declare your first period

Before you have a thriving business, there are humble beginnings. A few expenses and the first customer. These are fast to declare without any automation.

Step 0: Check what Finanzamt told you

If you have just obtained your tax number and are not a Kleinunternehmer, the Finanzamt can specify for which periods it expects advance VAT declarations from you. The information should be in the letter. Depending on the business start date that you mentioned in the Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung, it is usually the previous two quarters. 

Also, check out your account settings. If you have fully completed the onboarding, you can safely skip this step. Otherwise, go to Account -> Tax settings -> VAT type and choose subject to VAT if you are not a Kleinunternehmer and have to report VAT. 

Step 1: Add your transactions

Freelancers and Kleingewerbe operate on cash accounting principles, and single-entry bookkeeping is enough. In simple words, you pay taxes only on the money that you actually earned and got into your bank account. Not the work you have done. 

That’s why transactions are the key element of your accounting and tax filing. Start by adding a few transactions manually, one at a time. Go to Accounting -> Add transaction -> Create manually.

Enter its name and Norman will suggest a relevant tax category. 

Step 2: Submit the tax declaration

Once you have added all the transactions for the first period, navigate to the Taxes tab and review the reports that have been generated. They are already pre-filled and calculated. 

Click on the report to see it in detail. By clicking on the lines, you can learn what Finanzamt expects to see here. You can also check what transactions were calculated in this line.

Step 3: Add your tax number and the Finanzamt you work with

The Finanzamt will identify your declaration by the Steuernummer you provide. No printing or Elster certificates are needed. Click on the Add details or exclamation mark icons and add the tax number of your self-employed business.

Review the resulting form before submitting it. Clicking Submit will instantly send it to the Finanzamt.

Congrats on your first VAT filing! 

🚩 If your input tax was higher than the VAT collected from customers, you can receive a refund from the Finanzamt. It’s okay, especially for the first filings, since you’re just starting your business and investing in its growth.

Intermediate level: Going international with Reverse Charge

Compliant bookkeeping relies on the documents that precede financial transactions. Finanzamt requires all entrepreneurs to keep documents for at least 8 years. You don’t send these documents when you submit the tax declaration. You need them in case the Finanzamt initiates an audit or has questions about your tax reports. Norman helps you store the documents in one place. 

Step 1: Upload supporting documents

VAT rules vary depending on the type of sale, the client's type, and the location of your client/vendor. Norman will help you issue a compliant invoice for Reverse Charge sales and will automatically pre-fill the transaction details if you upload vendor invoices. 

👀 Don’t guess the paid VAT - the documents are your source of truth. Look at what’s actually written there. 

You can create transactions by uploading documents or create transactions and then link them to the documents. Whether you are on the Home page or the Accounting tab, Norman will extract the data from the uploaded document. 

Verify that Norman has the details correct and confirm the upload. Norman will update the tax declarations based on the details in the document. 

Step 2: Submit the tax declaration

International trade will expand your advance VAT declarations. Don’t worry, it doesn’t mean you'll pay more VAT to the Finanzamt!

💶 Some transactions are reported twice in the same report but don’t influence the amount of VAT owed.

Once again, you can see all the transactions attributed to a specific line by clicking it. 

Step 3: Submit Zusammenfassende Meldung

If you have business clients in the EU, you will also have to submit a form called Zusammenfassende Meldung (ZM). 

💸 ZM doesn’t include any additional taxes or fees! It’s just a report for the European Union to know which businesses had Reverse Charge transactions. 

If you invoice with Norman, all the data for the ZM is already there. 

Otherwise, you will have to add business clients. The key fields are country and VAT number.

Although the report is European, not German, you can still file it from Norman without additional registrations. 

Pro level: Automating Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung

It’s exciting to submit the Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung for the first time. Filling it for the third is boring as hell. Norman was designed to automate your tax compliance, so you don’t spend more than a couple of minutes on a declaration. 

Step 1: Sync your bank account

Why add transactions manually when they can always be on Norman and updated in real-time? Sync your bank from the Home or Accounting tabs. 

Norman syncs with more than 1000 banks in Germany. We work with a PSD2-licensed Open Banking provider that is compliant with EU regulations. 

Norman doesn’t get access to:

1. Bank credentials. Norman doesn’t see them, doesn’t get them, and won’t be able to access your bank account.

2. Money movement. Norman can’t initiate the wires and doesn’t see the card details.

What Norman gets:

1. List of transactions for the last 90 days. Yes, this is inconvenient if you want to add transactions from last year, but we are limited by regulations here. 

2. Temporary access to the updates. The consent you provide is temporary. Again for 90 days. It’s also inconvenient as you have to go through the reconnection process once a quarter, but again, it follows the regulations. 

To sync your bank account, simply follow the steps outlined by our partner.

After successfully syncing your bank account, please allow a few minutes for Norman AI to categorize all transactions. 

How to deal with personal transactions

Regardless of whether you connected to a personal or a business bank, some personal transactions can slip in. They don’t need to be reported in the tax declarations. To exclude them from all tax reports, simply select the "Personal" category.

How to deal with internal transfers

There are no tax consequences for moving funds between your own accounts. A single operation that deducts money from the main pocket and adds it to another pocket shouldn’t be recorded as self-revenue and self-expense. Select the "Internal transfer" category, and these transactions will also be excluded from all tax declarations.

Step 2: Bulk upload the documents

If you store documents outside of Norman or collect them once a month, you can upload all of them at once (well, up to 100 at a time). Go to Accounting -> Add transactions -> Bulk upload. 

Norman will process the uploaded documents for a minute and try its best to match them with existing transactions. 

Step 3: Check if you have tax notifications turned on

No need to circle the 10th of the next month to remember about the advance VAT declaration. Norman will remind you about the next filing. Go to Account -> Tax settings to check if tax notifications are turned on. Norman will send you an email reminder just before the deadline.

Conclusion

With a bank account connected and documents parsed by Norman - Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung can take minutes instead of hours. Please let us know if the guide was helpful or if you still have questions by emailing blog@norman.finance (the team reads every email).