As an employee, you can generally have your income taxes refunded up to the basic tax-free amount of €12,096 per year (as of 2025). This means that you can have a large part or even all of the income taxes paid refunded by submitting a tax return in the following year.
To do this, you must submit the documents by the end of July of the following year. The first tax return takes up to 3 months to process, in the following years it is faster. You can find the forms for the tax return free of charge on the Internet using a software called Elster. All other service providers on the Internet are mostly chargeable.
You can find more information, also about our cooperation with our partner Taxfix, in the article about last year's filing: Your tax declaration for the year 2024 - Here's how!
If you have any further questions on this topic, click Submit a Request.