Few people enjoy filing taxes. But what brings joy is the reimbursement of around 1,600 euros on average. So the paperwork is worth it, although you no longer have to deal with paper tax forms. The easiest way to get money back from the state is certainly a tax consultant, where you simply dump a mountain of receipts. But this personal advice is also relatively expensive.
You can fight your way through your tax return with the web app Mein ELSTER completely free of charge.
The route is more comfortable using classic control software. With all sorts of tricks, the providers have made the programs almost as clever as human tax consultants and numerous automatic functions shorten the path more and more.
But it should be even easier, completely without a computer. Tax apps have made it possible to do tax returns on your cell phone for a few years. We present the best apps to you here.
The WISO tax app comes from Buhl Data, the makers of the WISO savings book, and it wants to stir up the tax app market. To do this, she simply packs all the functions related to income tax into the app that users are also used to from the desktop. The Corona Tax Check, for example, which takes short-time work or home office into account for tax purposes, is also on board.
With the WISO tax app, employees, trainees, students, but also landlords, investors, pensioners and the self-employed can do their tax returns with their smartphones. The app is available free of charge for Android and iOS. You can currently use it to complete the tax returns for 2019, 2020 and 2021. The app saves time with many automatic functions.
But the whole thing is not completely free: only the download is free. If you like, you can have a non-binding calculation of how much tax the tax office would pay back. For the submission of the tax return, 29.99 euros are due.
Interviews are nothing new in tax consulting, the tax consultant asks his customers and tax software often determines the most important data in a question-and-answer game. The Taxfix app does the same. In interview mode, users answer around 70 questions tailored to their life situation. Users can currently use the app for tax returns from 2018 to 2021. Existing payroll tax assessments can be photographed, and the app then automatically takes over the corresponding items.
From the answers and the photographed data, Taxfix calculates the possible tax refund, which should not take longer than 22 minutes on average. If a proper refund beckons, you can send the data to the tax office, for which Taxfix charges 39.99 euros.
It is exciting what Taxfix advertises in its app: You will receive 50 percent of your expected tax refund in advance without waiting.
Steuerbot caused a sensation a few years ago because the app made a completely free tax return possible. In the meantime, the company has switched and offers download and use free of charge, but then 29.95 euros are due for the submission of the tax return. However, this amount is only charged if the reimbursement is more than 100 euros. The tax years 2018 to 2021 are currently covered by the app.
Similar to Taxfix, Steuerbot also states that it can get users through the tax return in 20 minutes. You talk to a chat bot that collects the most important data for the tax return. From this, the service then makes the tax return and, if desired, also sends it to the tax office.
Even the tax bot app cannot pour all life situations into tax cases. Employees have no problem, but tax returns for the self-employed do not work. Students, pensioners and holiday jobbers can use the app.
