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. Review the preview and arrange submission

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

During the current beta, choose Contact support to submit in the assisted-submission notice. A useful message is:

Please review and arrange the Lohnsteuer-Anmeldung for [company], [period]. The payroll months are approved and the preview is ready. Please confirm the filing details with me and provide the transmission result and payment information.

Use the agreed support channel to provide the prepared documents. Merely sending this request does not complete filing. Confirm the report and the agreed submission with support, then retain the actual protocol for the correct company and period. If submission is completed through Norman, check the submitted status and timestamp too. If another agreed reporting route is used, retain its receipt; the app status does not necessarily update automatically.

A pending or uncertain result needs clarification before another submission. A successful test PDF is never the evidence of a binding filing.

3. Pay the three kinds of amount

Use the reviewed amounts and due dates to arrange payment through your bank:

Tax filing does not pay these amounts or submit social-insurance reports. Contributions can fall due before the final monthly payroll is ready; use the fund's contribution plan and reporting process, then reconcile the final figures. AAG reimbursements are separate from these payments.

4. Match the bank entries in Norman

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.