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Filing as a German company
Which German returns and reports Nordlet sends, which files it produces for you to submit through your own accounts, and what each administration takes.
This page is for a company registered in Germany. It says, for every return and report, whether Nordlet sends it, whether Nordlet produces a file that you submit yourself, or whether you key the figures into an administration's portal. Nordlet never registers itself with a German administration: every submission goes through an account or a channel that belongs to your company.
How sending works
Three things can happen to a deadline in the calendar.
- Sent from the calendar. The row has a Submit button. Nordlet builds the file and sends it through the connection you set up under Settings → Compliance: your ELSTER certificate, your BZSt online portal account, your Destatis reporter account, or the bridge you run. The result, the reference and any rejection are recorded under Declarations → Filings.
- Produced for your own upload. Nordlet builds the file in the format the administration publishes. You download it and upload it through your own account. Declarations → Filings still records the file.
- Keyed in. The administration publishes no file format, or publishes it only to licensed software. Nordlet shows the figures; you enter them in the portal.
A bridge is a small program your company runs that holds your credentials and signs and uploads what Nordlet hands it. Nordlet holds no credentials of yours.
VAT
| Deadline | What happens | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Umsatzsteuer-Voranmeldung (monthly or quarterly VAT advance return) | Sent from the calendar as the ELSTER XML for the UStVA, under your ELSTER certificate | ELSTER, through your certificate and bridge |
| Zusammenfassende Meldung (EU sales list) | Sent from the calendar in the BZSt upload format | BZSt online portal, with your BOP account |
| Umsatzsteuererklärung (annual VAT return) | Produced under Declarations → ELSTER returns as the ELSTER XML of the annual return. ELSTER accepts it only through a licensed ERiC transmission, so you send it with your own ELSTER-capable program or key the figures into your ELSTER account | ELSTER, in your own account |
Statistics
| Deadline | What happens | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Intrastat | Sent from the calendar in the Destatis file layout | Destatis, with your reporter id and region key |
Corporate taxes and the E-Bilanz
| Deadline | What happens | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Körperschaftsteuererklärung (KSt 1) | Produced under Declarations → ELSTER returns with the recorded tax adjustments (additions, reductions, donations, loss deduction, credits). Sent with your own ELSTER-capable program or keyed in, because the ELSTER schema for the return is licensed to ERiC users only | ELSTER, in your own account |
| Gewerbesteuererklärung (trade tax) | Produced under Declarations → ELSTER returns with the recorded tax adjustments; sent or keyed in the same way | ELSTER, in your own account |
| E-Bilanz | Produced under Declarations → ELSTER returns as an XBRL file on the public HGB taxonomy 6.9. Your accounts are placed on the taxonomy positions under Settings → Statement rows; every position name is checked against the taxonomy package. Sending it needs the ERiC transmission, which only licensed software has, so you send it through your own ELSTER-capable program or your tax adviser | ELSTER (ElsterBilanz) |
The taxonomy positions of the balance sheet and the profit and loss account, and the general data (report type, statement type, status, report elements), are written the way the taxonomy package defines them. The legal form is not yet written as a taxonomy code.
Annual accounts deposit
| Deadline | What happens | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Offenlegung / Hinterlegung des Jahresabschlusses | Produced from the calendar as an XBRL file on the public HGB taxonomy, the same taxonomy the E-Bilanz uses. The notes to the accounts (Anhang) and the management report (Lagebericht) travel inside the file as the taxonomy's own elements; you enter them as text under Declarations → Annual accounts. The size class decides what is included: micro companies deposit the balance sheet only, small companies add the notes, medium and large companies add the profit and loss account and the management report. The deposit is refused with a message while a required text is missing | Publikations-Plattform of the Bundesanzeiger (Unternehmensregister), through your own account or your bridge |
The platform shows its technical rules only to signed-in users. The identifier Nordlet writes for your company inside the file is the commercial register number; if the platform asks for a different identifier, tell us.
Payroll
| Deadline | What happens | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Lohnsteuer-Anmeldung (wage tax return) | Produced under Declarations → ELSTER returns from the payroll run with the figures of lines 41 to 48. Sent with your own ELSTER-capable program or keyed in, because ELSTER publishes an upload description only for the VAT advance return | ELSTER, in your own account |
| Lohnsteuerbescheinigung (annual wage statements) | Produced under Declarations → ELSTER returns per employee from the payroll runs. Sent or keyed in the same way | ELSTER, in your own account |
| Beitragsnachweis (monthly contribution statement to each health insurer) | Produced under Declarations → Contribution statement as the fixed-length record the insurers' data collection points take (record BW02, layout in force from 1 January 2026), one record per insurer. The health contribution is split into the general rate and the insurer's extra rate, as the record wants it, and the flat-rate wage tax for marginal employment is included. You hand the file to your own transmission channel: your certified payroll program, your communication server with the ITSG certificate, or you key the amounts into the SV-Meldeportal | The data collection point of each health insurer |
| DEÜV notifications (registration, deregistration, annual notification of each employee) | Produced under Declarations → DEÜV notifications as the DSME records with their DBME, DBNA, DBGB and DBAN blocks (Anlage 4 of the common principles, in force from 2026): a registration for every start in the month, a deregistration for every leaving with the year's contribution-liable pay, and in December the annual notification for everyone still employed. The employee record carries what the blocks need: sex, birth name, place and country of birth, nationality, the activity key and the health insurer's operating number. You hand the file to your own transmission channel or key the shown values into the SV-Meldeportal | The data collection point of each health insurer |
The Employees page of a German company shows every field these files need: tax class, federal state, church tax, child allowances, the health insurer's operating number and extra rate, pension and unemployment liability, employment type, mini-job taxation, the U1 and U2 rates, the activity key, sex, birth name, place and country of birth and nationality.
What is not covered
- Any return for which the administration publishes no format: Nordlet shows the figures and you key them in.
- The version number of the core check program (Stellen 187–188 of the DSME) and the transmission envelope are set by your own transmission channel.
Where the formats come from
Every file follows a document the administration or its bodies publish: the ELSTER XML descriptions for the VAT advance return, the HGB taxonomy package from esteuer.de for the E-Bilanz and the deposit, the record descriptions of the health insurers' data exchange (published by the GKV-Spitzenverband and mirrored by the insurers, since its own site answers only from inside Germany), and the Destatis and BZSt upload layouts. The source of each file is named in the warnings and notes Nordlet shows next to it.