File wage tax and finish payroll in your books

Once the month is approved, finish two connected jobs: file the employer's wage tax return and reconcile the amounts in your books. You do not need a second import of the payroll expense.

This guide covers Norman's payroll with an SKR03 or SKR04 Ledger. Start with the director-and-two-employees example or the director-only workflow. For EÜR accounts, use the sole-trader guide.

1. Select the employer's filing period

In Payroll, open Tax reports. Choose the year and applicable month, quarter or year, then Compute and open the return.

Use the filing frequency applicable to your business, rather than choosing a year simply because you are working on year-end. The Lohnsteuer-Anmeldung is the employer's return for withheld wage tax. It is separate from a person's annual income tax return and the company's corporation tax return. ELSTER lists it under employer forms.

Check company details, period, included people and months, then wage tax, solidarity surcharge and church tax. All source months must be approved. For a full quarter with three unchanged employees, check all nine person-month lines rather than just the final month's total.

2. Preview and submit

Choose ELSTER test preview and resolve any reported errors. This is a test transmission, not the binding return.

Then choose Submit Lohnsteuer-Anmeldung and confirm. Norman sends the binding return to ELSTER and keeps the transmission protocol. The return then shows Filed with its date. Keep the protocol with your records.

If ELSTER does not answer, the return shows Awaiting confirmation: Norman sent it, but it is unclear whether the tax office received it. Do not submit it again straight away. After a few minutes, choose one of these:

• Not received, submit again: the return did not arrive. For example, no assessment or payment request came, and your tax advisor or the Finanzamt cannot find it. The return goes back to draft and you can submit it again.
• Received, mark as filed: the return did arrive, for example it appears in your tax account. Norman records it as filed on the date you enter, without a Norman protocol.

Filed the Anmeldung in Mein ELSTER or elsewhere? Choose Filed outside Norman, enter the date and confirm that you filed exactly these amounts. Norman then treats the period as filed: its months are locked and it cannot be submitted again.

A successful test PDF is never evidence of a binding filing.

3. Pay the three kinds of amount

You can pay all three from Norman in one transfer, confirmed once at your bank. See Pay salaries, contributions and wage tax from Norman. Or pay through your bank as usual.

Filing does not pay these amounts. Norman does not send social-insurance reports either: send them through the SV-Meldeportal. Norman prepares the figures and shows the steps in the app. Contributions can fall due before the final monthly payroll is ready. In that case, save a contribution plan, pay its amounts, and reconcile the final figures later. AAG reimbursements are separate from these payments.

4. Match the bank entries in Norman

Transfers you sent from Norman are booked and matched automatically once they show up on your bank statement. This step is for payments you made through your bank directly.

The calculation has already recorded the payroll expense and payables. After importing or syncing the bank transactions, review their bookkeeping and use the matching payroll payment view. For standard payroll clearing, the account mapping is:

These are liability accounts. Booking an already accrued salary payment as new salary expense would count the cost twice. Payroll payments have no input VAT to deduct.

For salary matching, select the person and month under Documents → Reconcile payouts. For tax matching, use the tax-payment reconciliation action in the monthly review. For fund payments, use the corresponding fund payment review. Match only the bank entries belonging to that amount; a quarterly tax payment may cover several monthly liabilities.

5. Verify the result in the Ledger and annual close

Open Ledger for the month and check salary expenses, employer social costs and the three kinds of payable. Then check that booked bank payments reduce the appropriate payable. Any balance should correspond to a documented amount still due, a payment in another period or an identified difference.

Open the income statement and trial balance for the same period. Payroll costs flow from these existing postings into the company's annual accounting. Neither a filing nor a downloaded PDF adds another expense.

Your monthly finish line is: approved payslips, evidence of the required filing, payments reconciled or remaining amounts explained, and consistent Ledger balances. Repeat for all months, then follow annual close and company tax returns. Employee annual wage tax certificates and social-insurance reporting remain separate obligations; agreeing the monthly Lohnsteuer-Anmeldung does not complete them.