Complete the tax registration questionnaire with Norman

With the tax registration questionnaire (Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung) you register your self-employment with the Finanzamt and receive your tax number. Norman guides you through the questionnaire in six steps, shows you the finished questionnaire as a PDF before you send, and transmits it through ELSTER. The service is free. You only need a Norman account with a confirmed e-mail address.

The notes in this article and in the app are not tax advice. For a special case, ask a tax advisor.

Before you start

Have ready:

• your tax identification number and, if you are married, your spouse's
• your address. It decides which Finanzamt is responsible
• a description of your activity in German
• a realistic estimate of revenue and profit for the first year
• optionally a bank account for refunds and direct debits
• a German mobile number for the confirmation by SMS

Clarify beforehand whether you are a freelancer (Freiberufler) or a trader (Gewerbe). That decides about the trade registration and the trade tax. The freelancer or trade test helps you.

Open the questionnaire

• When you set up your account, choose Register as self-employed.
• Later, the home page reminds you with Apply for a tax number to become self-employed. Click Continue registration.
• If you skipped the question during setup, or you cannot find the reminder anymore, open the questionnaire directly: app.norman.finance/tax-registration.

Norman saves your progress. You can stop at any time and continue later.

1. Personal

Enter your details exactly as they appear on your official documents: name, date of birth, tax ID, marital status, religious affiliation for church tax, contact details and address. If you are married, Norman also asks for your spouse's details. State whether you moved from another city in Germany. That helps the Finanzamt find your file.

2. Business

• Description of activity: Describe in German what you offer and how you earn money. The Finanzamt classifies you by it.
• Office address: only if you work from a fixed business address.
• Previous business in Germany: businesses of the last five years and a previous tax number, if any.

3. Tax

Here you make the decisions that shape your bookkeeping:

• Bookkeeping method: The income surplus statement (EÜR) is enough for freelancers, Kleinunternehmer and most traders. Double-entry bookkeeping becomes mandatory for traders only above €80,000 profit or €800,000 revenue.
• Business finances: this holds the three entries that decide your status: Business start date, Estimated revenue for the current year and Estimated revenue for the next year. Revenue is everything you take in before you deduct expenses, and only from self-employment, so no salary and no capital income. Norman extrapolates the current-year revenue over twelve months, counted from the business start date, and shows you the result: up to €25,000 you can use the Kleinunternehmer rule. The Finanzamt decides on exactly these two estimates, so estimate realistically.
• Charge VAT as a Kleinunternehmer: With I do not want to charge VAT you issue invoices without VAT and get no input VAT back. With I want to charge VAT you file a regular UStVA. Read Kleinunternehmer: VAT on invoices and expenses.
• Apply for a VAT ID: Say yes here, as a Kleinunternehmer too. The VAT ID changes nothing about your VAT status and costs nothing. But as soon as you have a business customer in the EU, you need it: reverse charge applies only when both VAT IDs are on the invoice. Applying later runs through the Federal Central Tax Office and means waiting again. That is why we recommend it to every business right away.
• Taxation basis: Income surplus statement means cash-based VAT (Ist-Versteuerung). The VAT falls due when the customer pays. Period accounting means accrual-based VAT (Soll-Versteuerung). It falls due with the invoice. For most self-employed people the cash basis is easier.
• VAT exemptions (0%) and reduced VAT (7%): only if your services fall under § 4 or § 12 UStG, for example medical professions or books.

4. Estimates

Unlike step 3, this is about profit, not revenue. Estimate profit and income for the current and the next year: profit from freelance or trade activity, salary from employment, capital income, rental, agriculture and forestry, other income, special expenses. The Finanzamt sets your prepayments from these figures. Profit is what remains after business expenses. Estimate realistically. The figures are mandatory.

5. Business account

The Finanzamt uses the bank account for refunds and direct debits. State who owns the account. If you do not want to share bank details, leave the fields empty.

6. Review and submit

1. Confirm your German mobile number. Click Send code and enter the code from the SMS.
2. Choose your Finanzamt. The search of the Federal Central Tax Office finds it by city or postcode.
3. Accept the terms.

Look at the transmission protocol

Before you send, Norman creates the finished questionnaire as a PDF: the Übertragungsprotokoll, exactly as the Finanzamt receives it. Norman sends it to ELSTER as a test case for this and transmits nothing yet.

Take the minute and open the document:

• Preview shows the PDF at full size.
• Download saves it for your records.

Check these above all:

• Name, date of birth, tax ID and address, character for character as in your identity documents.
• The description of your activity and the business start date.
• The estimated revenue and the Kleinunternehmer status.
• The chosen Finanzamt and the bank details.

After you send, you change nothing in Norman anymore. A correction then runs directly through the Finanzamt. Reading the document once is the last easy chance to catch a transposed digit or a wrong letter.

Send

Click Submit to the Finanzamt. Norman shows Tax registration form submitted. The transmission runs through ELSTER. You need no ELSTER account of your own.

After submission

• Confirmation: Keep the submission confirmation. It contains the date and a reference number. You find the submitted form in the vault in the folder Tax registration and under Account → Tax settings → Request the self-employment registration form.
• Tax number: It usually arrives by post within 4 to 8 weeks. Then enter it under Account → Tax settings. Only then can Norman transmit tax returns. Read Speed up your tax number after tax registration.
• VAT ID: If you applied for it, the Federal Central Tax Office sends it separately.
• Traders: Register your trade with the trade office as well. Read Trade registration.
• Noticed a mistake: Norman cannot change the submitted questionnaire. Read Correct the tax registration questionnaire after filing.
• Message "The form has already been submitted": The questionnaire is possible once per account. For a change, contact the Finanzamt.

Related articles

• Speed up your tax number after tax registration
• Correct the tax registration questionnaire after filing
• Which legal forms does Norman support?