Overview

• The Deutsche Steuer-Gewerkschaft has called for abolishing employee tax declarations in favor of automatically generated, pre-filled returns requiring only taxpayer review and supplementation.
• The federal governing coalition’s agreement endorses typifications, lump sums and mandatory digital filing, and the finance ministry recently piloted the EinfachELSTERplus interface for pre-populated returns in simple cases.
• Taxpayers must submit their 2024 returns by July 31, 2025, unless they use a tax advisor or Lohnsteuerhilfeverein, which triggers an automatic extension to April 30, 2026.
• New flat-rate allowances cover household services, craftsman and gardening work, allowing up to €20,000 in service costs and €6,000 in craft expenses to generate a tax bonus of as much as €5,200.
• The Bundeszentralamt für Steuern has issued warnings about an uptick in phishing and scam attempts targeting filers near the deadline and urges secure electronic submissions through the official ELSTER portal.