People have told me to go to the Finanzamt in my district and ask for help filling out all the forms. I only wish that ELSTER, the German e-filing site, was available in English.
But in case they don't help me, I plan to ask for help at two local tax help groups: the Lohnsteuer-Beratung Berlin or the Lohnsteuerhilfe Berlin-Brandenburg.
The Lohnsteuer-Beratung Berlin has online information in English and, according to Toytown's boards, has English-speaking tax preparers. The flat cost is 92.33 € a year and 12.67 € entrance fee for the first year, so the total for this year's tax return would be 105 €.
The Lohnsteuerhilfe Berlin-Brandenburg only has information in German on its website, but the cost seems to be on an attractively-priced sliding scale. Since I only worked in Germany since August, my 2008 taxable income is quite low, and the cost for me would be 56 euros + 8 euros for the entrance fee, so the total would be 64 euros...unless they include the money I made in the US for 2008...
After my visit to the Finanzamt, I will first try ELSTER with an online translation tool before asking for professional help.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment