I moved back home. Can I still get my German tax back?

Can I file from home?

Yes. A tax return in which you ask for wage tax to be counted against your real income tax is a voluntary assessment (§ 46 Abs. 2 Nr. 8 EStG). No law says you must live in Germany to file it.

If you had no home in Germany, you are a limited taxpayer (§ 1 Abs. 4 EStG). As an EU citizen living in an EU or EEA country, you can still apply for an assessment as an employee (§ 50 Abs. 2 EStG).

Paper is allowed. If your only income in Germany was wages, you do not have to file online (§ 25 Abs. 4 EStG). The return must be signed by hand, by both spouses for a joint return (§ 25 Abs. 3).

Which years are still open?

A voluntary return can be filed for four years. The period starts at the end of the tax year (§ 169 and § 170 AO). What counts is the day your return ARRIVES at the Finanzamt, not the day you post it. Once it has arrived in time, the period does not run out before the Finanzamt decides (§ 171 Abs. 3 AO).

Was your return required? Then the deadline is different

In some cases you had to file a return. Then the four years start later: at the end of the year you file, but no later than three years after the tax year (§ 170 Abs. 2 Nr. 1 AO). Required cases include:

• Wages from two or more employers at the same time (§ 46 Abs. 2 Nr. 2 EStG).
• A married couple where one was taxed in class V or VI, or in class IV with a factor (Nr. 3a).
• Class III because your spouse living in another EU country was counted for your tax class (Nr. 7). Non-resident employees who got class III or I on application must file after the year ends.

Which form do I use?

The main form depends on where you lived during the year and how much of your income was German.

• No home in Germany all year: form ESt 1 C, the return for people without unlimited tax liability. You get the basic allowance up to your German wages, after work costs linked to them (§ 50 Abs. 1 EStG).
• No home in Germany, but at least 90% of your income in that year was subject to German tax, or your income not taxed in Germany was below the basic allowance: you can apply to be treated as a resident (§ 1 Abs. 3 EStG). Then you use ESt 1 A with Anlage WA-ESt, and you need the Bescheinigung EU / EWR confirmed by your home tax office.
• Spouse at home: to get class III treatment as a couple, both incomes together must meet the limits, with the basic allowance doubled, and your spouse must live in an EU or EEA country or Switzerland.
• Lived in Germany for part of the year: you file as a resident for that year, and your German income from the months after you left is included (§ 2 Abs. 7 EStG). You have a habitual abode in Germany after a connected stay of more than six months (§ 9 AO).

Which Finanzamt do I send it to?

Without a home in Germany, your return is handled by your employer's Betriebsstättenfinanzamt (§ 50 Abs. 2 EStG). That is the office at the bottom of your Lohnsteuerbescheinigung: Finanzamt, an das die Lohnsteuer abgeführt wurde, with its name and four-digit number.

If you had more than one such office in the year, it is the one where you were last employed. If you worked in class VI, it is the one where you were last employed in class I. To find the address, use the official Finanzamtsuche of the BZSt.

I lost my Lohnsteuerbescheinigung or my Steuer-ID. What now?

The employer must give you the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung as a printout or electronically (§ 41b Abs. 1 EStG), and sends the same data to the tax office by the last day of February of the next year (§ 93c AO). So the data is not lost when the paper is. Pay that was taxed at a flat rate is never on it.

Your Steuer-ID (Identifikationsnummer) is yours for life. It is printed on the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung and on every Steuerbescheid. The BZSt says you can file your return without it, because the Finanzamt knows it or can find it.

1. Write to your old employer or agency and ask for a copy of the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung for each year.
2. If you have a Mein ELSTER account, view your Lohnsteuerbescheinigungen of the last 4 years there (Belegabruf), after you give consent in the account.
3. For the Steuer-ID, use the BZSt input form or write to Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, Referat St II 7, 11055 Berlin, with your surname, first name, registered address, date and place of birth.
4. The BZSt sends it by post to your registered address. To another address, for example at home, only with your signed letter of authority and a copy of your ID document, by letter.
5. Do not ask by phone or email: the BZSt never gives the Steuer-ID that way. It currently takes up to about four weeks.

Proof of income at home: Romania, Bulgaria, Poland

Your income at home is not taxed in Germany, but it raises the rate on your German pay (§ 32b EStG). For resident treatment under § 1 Abs. 3, the law requires a certificate of your home tax office (§ 1 Abs. 3 Satz 5 EStG). For EU citizens the form is the Bescheinigung EU / EWR, published in German and English and in Romanian, Bulgarian and Polish editions. Even in other cases the Finanzamt can ask for proof of home income for the same year.

• Romania: ANAF certifies the German Bescheinigung EU / EWR. The request can be filed online through the Spațiul Privat Virtual (SPV), which you can set up without going to an office. No fee or time is stated.
• Bulgaria: НАП certifies it on a separate request, Искане за издаване на документ (Обр. № Окд-51). Bring the German form filled in and signed. You can also use the НАП e-services with a КЕП or ПИК. No time is stated.
• Poland: the urząd skarbowy issues a certificate for a foreign authority. On paper it costs 17 zł; through e-Urząd Skarbowy or the eUS app it is free, and it comes within 7 days.

Your bank account and the letters that follow

The refund is paid by transfer. Under the tax administration's own rule, an IBAN is enough for an account in the EU or EEA; a BIC is needed only for SEPA accounts outside the EU and EEA. Romania, Bulgaria and Poland are in the EU, so your home IBAN works.

The Finanzamt writes by post to the address in your return. A decision posted abroad counts as received one month after posting (§ 122 Abs. 2 Nr. 2 AO). If it really arrived later, the later date counts, and the Finanzamt must prove when it arrived. You then have one month for an Einspruch, an objection (§ 355 AO).

There is practically no legal deadline for the Finanzamt to decide. Answer any letter by the date it gives.

Your checklist, and where Geldback fits

Geldback's tax application works from home on your phone, in Romanian, Bulgarian, Polish or English, with no account. It asks about your years, home country, employers, family and which papers you have. It does not produce tax forms yet: Geldback looks at your application and writes back with the next step. It does not file, sign or post anything, does not contact the Finanzamt and does not get papers for you. You pay nothing now; the price applies when your forms are ready.

1. List the years you worked in Germany. 2022 to 2025 are open; 2022 closes on 31 December 2026.
2. For each year find the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung and look at line 4, the wage tax taken.
3. Find your Steuer-ID on it, or file without it.
4. Choose the form: ESt 1 C, or ESt 1 A with Anlage WA-ESt if you apply under § 1 Abs. 3.
5. If you need it, have the Bescheinigung EU / EWR confirmed by your home tax office.
6. Give an EU IBAN and a postal address where letters really reach you.
7. Sign by hand (both spouses for a joint return), post it to the Finanzamt on the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung, and keep copies.