When I google online tax return, I am shown six different tools with which I can prepare my electronic tax return. But which one is right for me? We have tested four programmes for you.
Studentsteuererklärung.de invites you to start your tax return with a simple and familiar interface. A special feature right at the beginning is the option to log in with Facebook. After a quick entry of the basic data, it's straight down to the nitty-gritty: the reimbursement of my study costs.
In clearly explained fields, I am pointed to all the tricks on how I can still save taxes with my student time. The prerequisite for this is, of course, that I still have the documents. Fileee is a wonderful tool for this.
Only after I have entered all the information about my studies and can already see how much money I will save, do I enter income and other costs. This is a bit tedious as I have to add each item individually and am not guided through it. When I'm done with everything, I'm asked to pay before I can send it off. All the fun costs €34.50, which is quite a lot in comparison.
Conclusion: If you are still studying or have just finished and have no other major income or expenses, studentensteuererklärung.de is the ideal tool for you. Otherwise, it will tend to annoy you, as you will be asked to provide information that really doesn't interest you. We explain here whether a student tax return is worthwhile for you and what you should consider.
With Lohnsteuer-Kompakt, I am immediately struck by the large amount of information the programme offers me. After I have imported my basic data from my old tax return programme, a three-part screen appears in which I can see my progress on the left, enter my data in the middle and always get the relevant information on the right.
This makes the programme a little bulkier, but it is also very suitable as a supplement to fileee, as I am given many hints as to which keywords I can search for in fileee. This saves me a lot of work in preparation and makes tags almost superfluous. You can find out how to decide whether you should set tags here.
As with studentensteuererklärung.de, I only pay here after I have finished my tax return. With €19.90 as the basic price and a €3 surcharge for a check by an employee, I get off quite cheaply.
Conclusion: If I don't mind a somewhat clunky and sometimes slow handling, Lohnsteuer-Kompakt is convincing with many useful tips and the always appropriate hints that help me find my documents again quickly.
smartsteuer has been around much longer than the competition. Since 2012, smartsteuer has made it possible to prepare tax returns completely online. The experience of lexware has resulted in a product filled with knowledge, but not quite as simple as lohnsteuer-kompakt.
On the other hand, smartsteuer scores with a very attractive user interface and clear menu navigation. Before each section, it briefly explains to me what's coming up next. If I have set my tags accordingly over the course of the year, I can now flit quickly through the programme.
With smartsteuer, I am elegantly guided through all the shoals of my tax return. At €14.95, I also get off super cheaply.
Conclusion: If a clear interface and good guidance through the programme are important to you, then Smartsteuer is the right choice for you. Even though it does not have as much detailed information on the interface as Lohnsteuer-kompakt, with a little digging you can find everything you need in Smartsteuer.
Elster Online is the official, free programme for preparing tax returns, which is provided by the tax office. The first big difference is the registration process, where I have to go through several steps, including waiting for a letter with a password, before I can finally use my account after a few weeks.
When I start the programme, I quickly long for my tax helpers who explained everything so wonderfully. Elster may make everything highly official and correct, but it is also very complicated and unwieldy.
What is really practical, however, is that I can have my health insurance and income tax data filled in automatically and also transfer entries from the previous year directly. This is a service that only a state app can provide.
Conclusion: If you have already filled in your tax return by hand in recent years and this has not caused you any stress for a long time, then Elster is your programme. In addition to the automatic entry of data, the price is the winning argument, because the whole thing is free of charge. With fileee, it will be easier than ever for you to collect the necessary data, and from 2017 you won't even have to submit donation receipts.
We hope that we could help you to choose a programme. The three private programmes offer you the option of paying only at the time of completion and make your life much easier. Elster is completely free and scores points with its direct connection to the authorities. However, if you want a tip on how to save additional taxes, I would recommend one of the paid programmes.
If all the work with the tax return is too much for you despite these tools, you can also sit down with a tax advisor. felix1 , for example, offers year-round advice at a really fair price, which reduces the stress shortly before submission to a minimum. I discussed how you can optimise the cooperation with your tax advisor with the help of fileee with Dieter Albrecht.
If you have more questions about the electronic tax return and how you can best use your fileee account for this, then take a look at our tax return page.
