Doing your own EÜR: sorting receipts, calculating, filing in ELSTER

The Einnahmenüberschussrechnung (EÜR), Germany's cash-basis profit calculation, is quick to compute: business income minus business expenses. The work lies elsewhere. You have to sort a pile of receipts into the right lines of a form that has 90 of them, deciding as you go what counts in full, what counts partly and what does not count at all.

This guide walks the whole way from bank statement to submitting in ELSTER. With a mapping table telling you which receipt belongs in which line, and a worked example year you can follow along.

This article provides general information and does not replace tax advice. If your case is unclear, ask your tax adviser.

Contents

1. Are you allowed to use the EÜR at all?
2. Step 1: What to gather
3. Step 2: The cash principle decides which year a payment belongs to
4. Step 3: Sort receipts into eight piles
5. Step 4: The mapping table – which receipt goes in which line
6. Step 5: What you may deduct only partly or not at all
7. Step 6: Purchases above 800 euros – depreciation
8. A worked example year
9. VAT: gross or net?
10. Step 7: Entering and submitting in ELSTER
11. The five mistakes that cost the most
12. Frequently asked questions

Are you allowed to use the EÜR at all?

Yes – as long as you stay below the thresholds and are not entered in the commercial register.

Section 141 of the German Fiscal Code requires full bookkeeping with a balance sheet if either applies:

• Total turnover above 800,000 euros in a calendar year
• Profit from a trade above 80,000 euros in a financial year

Below that, the EÜR is enough. The tax office does not impose bookkeeping retroactively: it notifies you, and the obligation starts in the following financial year.

Members of the liberal professions may use the EÜR regardless of size – the thresholds do not apply to the freie Berufe under Section 18 of the Income Tax Act. Who belongs to which group is explained in freelancer or trade.

Anyone in the commercial register must prepare a balance sheet. That applies to GmbH, UG and registered merchants.

Step 1: What to gather

Before entering anything, put six things on the table:

1. All business account statements for the whole year. This is your main source, because the EÜR follows the money.
2. Cash book or cash records, if you take cash.
3. Outgoing invoices – but only to check which ones were paid.
4. Incoming invoices and receipts, sorted by payment date.
5. VAT pre-returns for the year, if you are VAT-registered.
6. Last year's asset register, if you already depreciate items.

Practical tip: For the EÜR, start from the bank statement, not from the pile of invoices. Every line on the statement is either income, expense or private. What is on no statement does not belong in the EÜR either – with the exception of cash transactions and depreciation.

Does that hold under accrual VAT accounting too? For the EÜR, yes. Profit calculation under Section 4(3) of the Income Tax Act always follows the cash principle of Section 11, regardless of whether you account for VAT on invoiced or on received amounts. Even under accrual VAT accounting you record income only once the money has arrived.

You still need the invoices – for a different purpose. Under accrual VAT accounting (Sollversteuerung) the VAT falls due once you have delivered, not when you are paid. So the invoice date governs the VAT return, while the payment date governs the EÜR. Two different dates from the same documents.

In practice: keep two lists. One by invoice date for VAT, one by payment date for the EÜR. Under cash VAT accounting (Istversteuerung) the two coincide – one of the reasons it is usually the better choice for small businesses.

Step 2: The cash principle decides which year a payment belongs to

Section 11 of the Income Tax Act sets the rule: what counts is the day the money moves. Not the invoice date, not the date of performance, not the due date.

Two consequences. First: an unpaid invoice is nothing for tax purposes. If a customer never pays, you never tax it. Second: you can steer your profit within limits by moving a payment into the old or the new year – permissible as long as the money actually moves then.

One exception: regularly recurring payments moving within ten days around the turn of the year belong to the year they economically relate to. January's rent, transferred on 28 December, belongs to the new year.

Step 3: Sort receipts into eight piles

Take your bank statements and assign every entry to one of these piles. These eight groups cover what comes up in small businesses:

Every entry lands in exactly one pile. Anything you cannot assign, mark it and clarify with your tax adviser – do not guess.

Step 4: The mapping table – which receipt goes in which line

The Anlage EÜR has 90 lines. For small businesses, about 25 of them matter.

Line numbers refer to the official 2025 Anlage EÜR form (Federal Ministry of Finance circular of 29 August 2025). The labels stay stable over the years, individual numbers shift occasionally. Search in ELSTER by the label, not the number — then the mapping still works in coming years. For the 2026 financial year, the Federal Ministry of Finance published a separate form on 1 September 2026. If you are filing your EÜR for 2025 now, you stay with the 2025 form.

Business income (section 1, lines 12 to 23 in the 2025 form)

Business expenses (section 2, lines 24 to 75 in the 2025 form)

The profit (section 3, lines 76 to 90 in the 2025 form)

ELSTER calculates the totals itself. You only enter the individual lines.

Step 5: What you may deduct only partly or not at all

Pile G from step 3 needs special treatment. The form has two columns for it: non-deductible and deductible. You enter both amounts.

What applies to the home office is explained in claiming a home office, and what counts for gifts in booking gifts. What has to be on the entertainment receipt for those 70 percent to be recognised at all is covered in filling in the entertainment receipt.

Not deductible at all: income tax, solidarity surcharge, private expenditure of any kind, fines and penalties.

Step 6: Purchases above 800 euros – depreciation

This is the second big exception to the cash principle, and it affects almost everyone.

The rule: if an item costs more than 800 euros net and lasts longer than a year, you may not deduct it at once. You spread it over its useful life.

How to proceed:

1. Calculate net. The 800-euro limit is without VAT. A device at 950 euros gross costs 798.32 euros net – still deductible at once.
2. Look up the useful life. It is set out in the official depreciation tables of the Federal Ministry of Finance. Common values: computers and software three years, office furniture thirteen years, cars six years.
3. Divide by the years. Net cost ÷ useful life = annual amount.
4. Prorate in the year of purchase. Bought in September, so four of twelve months: only a third of the annual amount.
5. Enter it in the asset register. That is the Anlage AVEÜR and a mandatory part of the EÜR.
6. Carry the annual amount into line 33.

Example: extraction unit at 8,925 euros gross, 7,500 euros net, useful life five years, bought in January. 7,500 ÷ 5 = 1,500 euros per year, for five years.

Up to 800 euros net it is simpler: deduct in full at once, line 36. That makes this threshold the most important number when buying – whoever lands at 830 euros net spreads the amount over years.

A worked example year

Marlene Ostrowski runs a small joinery, no staff, not in the commercial register, VAT-registered. Her 2025 with line mapping:

Business income

A December invoice of 4,200 euros is still open. It does not appear – the money only arrived in February 2026.

Business expenses

Result

Line 76: 81,850.00 €
Line 77: − 66,840.00 €
Line 90: 15,010.00 € profit

What stands out

Marlene worked more than this figure shows. The open December invoice of 4,200 euros is missing, and she paid 8,925 euros for the extraction unit but may only claim 1,500. Neither is a loss, only a shift: the invoice counts in 2026, the unit over four more years.

Anyone who wants to keep track of such shifts needs an overview that separates paid from open invoices and carries the depreciation. That is exactly what accounting software does.

VAT: gross or net?

This is where most EÜRs go wrong.

As a small-business taxpayer under Section 19 VAT Act you charge no VAT and deduct no input VAT. You enter your income in line 12, and lines 17, 18, 57 and 58 stay empty. The thresholds: total turnover of at most 25,000 euros in the previous year and at most 100,000 euros in the current one.

As a VAT-registered business you carry four positions:

Your turnover and purchases then go in net. Important: either you carry all four positions or none. A mix produces wrong figures.

Accrual or cash VAT accounting changes nothing about these four positions. You enter what actually moved. The difference lies only in when you had to pay the VAT to the tax office – and therefore in which month the payment lands in line 58.

One exception around the turn of the year: VAT prepayments count as regularly recurring expenses. If you pay the December return within the first ten days of January, it still belongs to the old year (Section 11(2) sentence 2 Income Tax Act). This works both ways and is often overlooked.

Whether the small-business scheme is worth it is discussed in small-business scheme – yes or no.

Step 7: Entering and submitting in ELSTER

The EÜR is filed electronically. Paper is only allowed on application in cases of undue hardship (Section 60(4) Income Tax Implementation Regulation).

1. Create an ELSTER account if you do not have one. Registration takes up to two weeks because an activation code arrives by post. Details in applying for a tax number via ELSTER.
2. Choose income tax return, add Anlage EÜR.
3. Fill in the general details: type of business, legal form, type of income (1 = agriculture and forestry, 2 = trade, 3 = self-employed work).
4. Enter income and expenses using the table above. ELSTER calculates the totals.
5. Fill in Anlage AVEÜR if you depreciate. It is mandatory.
6. Run the plausibility check, submit, save the transmission protocol.

Several businesses? Then submit a separate Anlage EÜR for each.

Deadline: The Anlage EÜR is part of the income tax return and shares its filing deadline. Details in filing deadlines and deadline missed.

The five mistakes that cost the most

1. Invoice date instead of payment date. The most common error. Produces profits in years when no money came in.

2. Purchases above 800 euros deducted at once. Spotted in every audit and corrected with interest.

3. VAT carried half way. Booking the VAT collected but forgetting the VAT paid means taxing money that belongs to the tax office.

4. Private shares not separated out. Phone, car, home office: whoever uses them privately may not deduct in full.

5. Missing receipts. No receipt, no expense. Retention period ten years, electronic and unalterable.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to file the Anlage EÜR if I barely had any turnover? Yes, as soon as you declare income from a trade or self-employed work. The former 17,500-euro threshold, below which an informal statement sufficed, no longer exists.

Can I do the EÜR in a spreadsheet? Arithmetically yes. You still have to file electronically via ELSTER, and the receipts must meet the retention rules.

Where do I find the useful life for depreciation? In the depreciation tables of the Federal Ministry of Finance. There is a general table and tables for individual sectors.

What do I do with a loss? Declare it normally. It reduces your other income in the same year or is carried forward or back.

Do I have to send in receipts? No. But you must keep them for ten years and produce them on request.

I use the small-business scheme – do I still need an EÜR? Yes. The small-business scheme only concerns VAT, not profit calculation.

I switch to standard taxation mid-year – how do I calculate? From the switch onwards you carry the four VAT positions. The process is described in switching to standard taxation.

If you would rather not assemble your cash-basis statement out of shoeboxes once a year, collect the figures as you go: income from the invoices you issue, expenses from the receipts you record. Try Easy Invoice for free – your income is already sorted by period there.

As of 14 September 2026. Line numbers follow the official Anlage EÜR 2025 form (Federal Ministry of Finance circular of 29 August 2025, ref. IV C 6 - S 2142/00023/010/001). Sources: Section 4(3) and (4) Income Tax Act · Section 11 Income Tax Act · Section 6(2) Income Tax Act · Section 141(1) Fiscal Code · Section 19(1) VAT Act · Section 60(4) Income Tax Implementation Regulation. This article provides general information and does not replace tax advice. If your case is unclear, ask your tax adviser.