I worked a season in Germany. Can I get the tax back?

Which kind of tax did your employer take?

In Germany an employer can tax your pay in two very different ways. Everything else on this page follows from which one was used, so check this first, before you pay anyone to help you.

The law lets the employer choose. It says the employer may use a flat rate; it does not have to (§ 40a EStG). So two people on the same farm can be taxed differently.

The flat rates: 25%, 5% and 2%

German income tax law (§ 40a EStG, current version) allows a flat wage tax, called pauschale Lohnsteuer, for some short or small jobs. These are the rates that matter for seasonal work:

• 25% for short-term work: you work only now and then, for no more than 18 working days in a row, and the pay is no more than 150 € per working day on average, or the job was needed at once at a moment nobody could plan.
• 5% for helpers in farming and forestry (Aushilfskräfte): only typical farm or forest work that does not happen all year round. Not for skilled farm workers, and not if you work for the business more than 180 days in the calendar year.
• 2% for a Minijob (geringfügige Beschäftigung): one flat tax that covers wage tax, solidarity surcharge and church tax, paid by the employer to the Minijob-Zentrale. If the employer pays no flat pension contributions for you, the flat rate is 20% instead.
• Under the current law, the 25% and 5% rates are not allowed if your pay is more than 19 € per working hour on average.
• The 25% and 5% rates are also not allowed if the same employer pays you for another job that is taxed normally.

Why a flat tax never comes back

The law is very clear. Pay taxed at a flat rate, and the flat tax itself, are left out of the tax return completely, and the flat tax is not counted against your income tax (§ 40 Abs. 3 EStG, which § 40a Abs. 5 applies to all flat rates). So a tax return cannot bring it back, however little you earned in that year.

By law the employer owes the flat tax. If the employer passed it on to you, it still counts as part of your pay and is still not credited.

Flat-taxed pay is also not shown on a Lohnsteuerbescheinigung (§ 41b Abs. 6 EStG). If all your pay in a season was flat-taxed, you will not get a certificate for it. That is the law, not a trick by the employer.

How to read your papers

The Lohnsteuerbescheinigung (the printout is called Ausdruck der elektronischen Lohnsteuerbescheinigung) shows only pay that was taxed normally. The lines below are from the official 2026 sample.

Your payslip (Lohnabrechnung) must show the type and amount of every deduction (§ 108 GewO). So any tax taken from your pay must be on it. If the employer paid a flat tax itself, nothing was deducted from you and it may not show at all.

1. Find the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung for each season: on paper, by email, or in the employer's or agency's online portal.
2. Line 1, Bescheinigungszeitraum: the dates the certificate covers.
3. Line 3, Bruttoarbeitslohn: the gross pay that was taxed normally.
4. Line 4, Einbehaltene Lohnsteuer: the wage tax taken. An amount here means a refund can be possible. Lines 5 and 6 show solidarity surcharge and church tax.
5. On the left, Steuerklasse: the tax class used. A tax class means normal wage tax.
6. At the bottom: the Finanzamt the tax was paid to, with its name and four-digit number. Your return goes there.
7. If you are unsure, ask the employer in writing: was my pay taxed at a flat rate under § 40a EStG (pauschal versteuert), or through my tax class? If normal wage tax was taken, ask for the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung.

Normal wage tax: when a refund is possible

Wage tax taken every month through a tax class is only a prepayment. With a tax return you ask the Finanzamt to count it against the real income tax for the year (§ 46 Abs. 2 Nr. 8 EStG). If too much was taken, the difference comes back.

Germany does not tax income up to a basic allowance, the Grundfreibetrag (12,348 € for 2026, § 32a EStG). If you had no home in Germany, you get this allowance up to the amount of your German wages, after work costs linked to that work (§ 50 Abs. 1 EStG).

Your income at home in the same year is not taxed in Germany, but it raises the tax rate on your German pay (Progressionsvorbehalt, § 32b EStG). That is why the Finanzamt can ask for proof of your home income, confirmed by your home tax office.

70 or 90 days: social insurance, not tax

Farms and agencies often talk about 70 or 90 days. This rule is about social insurance, not tax. Short-term work (kurzfristige Beschäftigung) is free of social insurance for up to 3 months or 70 working days in a calendar year; for work in a farm business the current law allows 15 weeks or 90 working days (§ 8 SGB IV).

A job can be free of social insurance and still be taxed normally, or at a flat rate. So sozialversicherungsfrei never means tax-free.

A tax return deals only with income tax. It never pays back pension, health or unemployment contributions.

• Minijob limit in 2026: 603 € a month on average, up to 7,236 € a year (Minijob-Zentrale).
• A Minijob is not always taxed at the 2% flat rate. The employer may also tax it through your tax class. Then it is normal wage tax and counts in a tax return. Your payslip and certificate show which.

Several seasons: one return per year, each with its own deadline

A tax return is always for one calendar year. If you worked seasons in 2022 and 2024, that is two returns, with their own papers and their own deadline. One year can bring money back while another brings nothing.

A voluntary return can be filed for four years after the tax year. It must arrive at the Finanzamt by the date below; a postmark is not enough.

You may file on paper if you only had wages, and you must sign it by hand (§ 25 EStG). If you had no home in Germany, the Finanzamt of your employer's business (Betriebsstättenfinanzamt) handles your return (§ 50 Abs. 2 EStG). That is the one at the bottom of the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung.

Romania, Bulgaria, Poland: what is different

The German rules on this page are the same for every worker, whatever your home country. The differences are in the papers you can get at home.

• Romania: no seasonal rules of its own were verified on anaf.ro. The German rules above apply as they are.
• Bulgaria: the Bundesagentur für Arbeit has a leaflet in Bulgarian, Сезонна работа в Германия. It says your payslip must show at least the hours worked, gross pay per month, the income tax deducted, other deductions such as accommodation, food or advances, and net pay.
• Poland: the Polish government guide (powroty.gov.pl) says German offices may ask for a certificate of your Polish income for the same year, confirmed by the urząd skarbowy, especially if you did not work in Germany all year. On paper it costs 17 zł; through e-Urząd Skarbowy or the eUS app it is free, and it comes within 7 days (podatki.gov.pl).

What Geldback can and cannot do for a season

Geldback cannot get a flat tax back, and nobody can. If your papers show a flat tax for the whole season, this page is the help: you know now, before you pay anyone.

If you paid normal wage tax, you can send Geldback a short tax application from your phone, in Romanian, Bulgarian, Polish or English: the years, your home country, your employers, your family and which tax papers you have. It does not produce tax forms yet. Geldback looks at your application and writes back with the next step. The application does not ask whether your pay was flat-taxed, so check that yourself first.

You pay nothing now; the price applies when your forms are ready: 49 € for the first year and 29 € for each extra year. Any refund goes from the Finanzamt straight to your own bank account.