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by UpToTheSky 1123 days ago
Can GnuCash be used to do your taxes in Germany?

Any indie makers here doing their taxes on their own?

So far, I have always worked with a tax consultant. But I wonder if it really makes sense to pay thousands of Euros just to put numbers into forms. It feels like it is something that one should be able to automate.
2 comments
blihp 1123 days ago
QuickBooks and GnuCash handle the accounting, which supplies the data needed for your taxes. However, they won't spit out your tax forms as that's a separate task and not likely something open source is going to tackle anytime soon given how convoluted, arbitrary and constantly changing tax laws can be. Most open source developers would rather go in for multiple elective root canals before dealing with that.

Yes, it's possible to do your own taxes but it's a headache the first time or two you do it. I have never found any open source software to help with it beyond things like LibreOffice Calc to do various tax worksheets.

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c00lio 1123 days ago
There was taxbird for filing (there is another application with the same name that does something different, you want(ed) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxbird ). But that has been killed by the tax authorities: They shut down the interface used there, so nowadays only proprietary applications exist.

But from experience, don't bother with any software, German taxes are sufficiently weird that only the most trivial cases will really work out, even if you pay lots of money for it. Get a tax accountant. It isn't just putting numbers into forms, it is more the problem of structuring your life around possible tax savings. Software won't help with that.

If you only ever need filing and putting numbers into forms, you can file your taxes on the official website: https://www.elster.de . You'd need a login anyways to authorize your tax accountant or enable your software to submit its data.

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