Nobody can avoid reporting their income to the tax authorities and taxing them accordingly – and this also applies to the self-employed. According to POLYHOBBIES, the questionnaire on tax registration serves as a basis and this must be correctly filled out by every company founder at the beginning of the self-employed activity and then handed over to the tax office.
The tax office sends the questionnaire
If you have decided to take up self-employment, you have to go to the authorities. The first step is to register the business with the responsible trade office, whereupon the tax office then sends the questionnaire for tax registration, which forms the basis for registering the self-employed activity with the tax authorities. If self-employment is carried out on a freelance basis, the first step is omitted and that means that the founder, as a freelancer, has to report to the tax office in order to then receive the questionnaire.
Even for inexperienced founders, filling out the tax registration questionnaire is no problem. But when the first company is founded, there are some stumbling blocks that should be considered.
1. The general information in the questionnaire
First of all, the private tax number must be entered on each of the eight pages of the questionnaire and the box “Taking up a commercial / self-employed (freelance) … activity” must also be ticked on each page. Then you can devote yourself to the general information under point 1.
If the private address and contact details are entered, as well as those of the spouse, if applicable, then the planned activity and the bank details are specified under point 1.4. It is advisable here to separate private and business accounts.
2. The information on commercial or professional activity
All information relating to the new self-employed activity is now entered under this point. This is followed by the question of the entry in the commercial register, which can only be answered with “Yes” if, as a merchant in the sense of the HGB, one is obliged to register. Then there is the information about the type of company formation and since it is usually a new company, all you have to do is enter the date of the first business activity. Incidentally, this may even be before the business registration, if there was already an entrepreneurial activity. If it is not a start-up, but a takeover, relocation or conversion, then the information about the previous company must be entered in the tax registration questionnaire.
3. The information for determining the advance payments
In point 3, information is given on the planned income as well as the planned entrepreneurial profits in the year the company opened and in the following year. These figures help the tax office to determine the amount of the advance payments (income tax and trade tax).
In addition, other information must be provided here that is relevant for the amount of the income tax prepayments.
4. 5. and 6. The determination of the profit and the wage tax
In the fourth point, a decision must be made to determine the profit and this is where the income-surplus calculation or accounting is usually used. If the turnover is less than 600,000 euros, there is an income-surplus calculation and a profit of less than 60,000 euros. In contrast, accounting is mandatory for the merchant in terms of commercial law.
Point 5 enables the exemption from tax deductions for construction work and if employees are employed, then the information for registration and payment of wage tax must be provided.
7. Registration and payment of sales tax
This point deals with questions relating to sales tax. The small business regulation can be used if the turnover limit of 17,500 euros is not exceeded in the year of establishment by 50,000 euros in the following year (probably).
Now it’s almost there
As a new founder, point 8 is not relevant and that means that you are almost there. Now it is only necessary to enter the attachments of the questionnaire for tax registration as necessary and then the forms can be sent directly to the tax office. Alternatively, the data can also be entered via Elster.
The tax office will respond in a letter a few weeks later and this will contain the tax number for invoicing. This means that you are completely registered with your company at the tax office and you can concentrate fully on your business activities.
