Every year in July, three tax returns and the annual financial statements fall due at the same time for a GmbH or UG (the two German limited liability company forms). If you have no tax advisor, or cannot find one right now, you have to prepare and file the Jahresabschluss (annual financial statements), the tax returns and the balance sheet yourself. Here you will find out exactly what is due, what happens if you miss the deadline, and how you can still get everything finished in time over the next few weeks.
As a GmbH or UG without a tax advisor, you have to file three tax returns plus your annual financial statements and your balance sheet with the Finanzamt (your local tax office) by July 31, 2026. You will not get a reminder. If you miss the deadline, file as quickly as you can anyway: until the end of February 2027 the Finanzamt still has discretion over the late filing surcharge. From March 1, 2027 the surcharge becomes mandatory, and if you stay silent for longer, the Finanzamt may estimate your figures itself.
You will not find July 31 written into any statute. It follows from a calculation rule: under § 149 (2) of the Abgabenordnung (AO), the German Fiscal Code, annual returns have to be filed no later than seven months after the end of the calendar year. Seven months after December 31, 2025 is July 31, 2026.
“Tax returns relating to a calendar year shall be filed no later than seven months after the end of that calendar year.” § 149 (2) sentence 1 Abgabenordnung (AO)
What many founders do not have on their radar: this is not one single return. It is three returns plus the filing of the balance sheet, and they all share the same date.
Something else matters here: you do not have to wait to be asked. The filing obligation follows directly from your legal form and arises automatically. Whether or not you receive a letter from the Finanzamt makes no difference to it.
The Finanzamt will not remind you. There is no legal duty to remind taxpayers of filing deadlines. The clock runs whether or not you have the date in your calendar.
File late and you generally have to reckon with two consequences: a late filing surcharge and, if the returns fail to appear at all over a longer period, an estimate by the Finanzamt. You can avoid both once you understand how the deadlines actually work.
For up to 14 months after the end of the year, that is until February 28, 2027, the Finanzamt has discretion under § 152 (1) AO. It may impose a surcharge, but it does not have to. In practice many tax offices refrain from a surcharge where the delay is short and no tax is outstanding. There is no guarantee of that, but it is not automatic either.
From March 1, 2027 this changes fundamentally. From then on, the Finanzamt has to impose a late filing surcharge under § 152 (2) AO, with no discretion, unless the outcome is zero tax or even a refund. The surcharge is set automatically together with the tax assessment, without any prior reminder or notice.
The surcharge is 0.25 percent of the tax owed for every month or part month of delay, at least 25 euros per month and at most 25,000 euros.
If you owe no tax at all, because prepayments covered everything or because the result was zero, the mandatory surcharge from March 2027 does not apply to you. A discretionary surcharge for the period before that remains possible all the same.
File nothing at all and you give the Finanzamt the right to estimate the basis of taxation itself. This is set out in § 162 AO and happens in practice when returns fail to appear for a longer period. Tax offices tend to estimate on the high side, based on comparable figures from similar businesses or on your own previous year.
You can appeal against an estimated assessment and submit the real figures afterwards. Until that is settled, though, the estimated amounts are due. That ties up cash, costs time and creates extra work that filing on time avoids entirely.
Yes. An extension is possible and is often granted in practice. You apply informally by letter to the Finanzamt responsible for you, or through the ELSTER organisation portal, name a realistic new date and briefly explain why you need more time. The Finanzamt decides at its own discretion. There is no legal entitlement to an extension, but most tax offices react cooperatively when the application is made proactively and with reasons.
One thing matters here: the application has to reach the Finanzamt before July 31. An application after the deadline has passed comes too late.
A retroactive extension is possible in principle under § 109 (1) sentence 2 AO, but only in exceptional situations you are not responsible for, such as serious illness, unforeseen data loss or comparable circumstances. Time pressure or being overloaded are not accepted grounds. What makes sense in every case: file as quickly as possible and contact the Finanzamt proactively. The sooner the returns are in, the lower the risk of a surcharge and of an estimate.
The Finanzamt is under no legal obligation to remind taxpayers of filing deadlines. There is no automatic notice, no email and no phone call. The clock runs whether or not you have the date in your calendar.
The filing obligation applies regardless of the result. A loss-making year, a fiscal year without revenue or a dormant GmbH makes no difference to it. Every GmbH and every UG has to file the tax returns.
Since the modernisation of the taxation procedure in 2017, the late filing surcharge can be set fully automatically together with the tax assessment, without any prior reminder or notice. § 152 (11) AO provides for exactly that.
The two terms get mixed up a lot, but they describe different obligations. The Jahresabschluss under HGB, the German Commercial Code, consists of the balance sheet, the profit and loss statement and the notes, and additionally has to be disclosed to the Unternehmensregister (the German company register, formerly the Bundesanzeiger). For the 2025 fiscal year the disclosure deadline is December 31, 2026. The tax returns, by contrast, go to the Finanzamt and have July 31, 2026 as their deadline. Both obligations run in parallel and have different recipients and different dates.
There are only a few weeks left until July 31. That is enough to finish the annual financial statements and all four returns in time. It is not enough if you wait much longer.
The first step is to take stock: bank statements for all business accounts, credit card statements, incoming invoices, outgoing invoices, cash receipts. The more complete your bookkeeping basis is now, the more smoothly the statements will come together.
If you want to file the annual financial statements and the tax returns yourself through ELSTER, you first need an organisation certificate for the GmbH at ELSTER, which has to be applied for separately. After that you have to prepare the annual financial statements and complete and transmit all four returns. That is technically possible, but time consuming, and mistakes in the account assignment or in the statements can get expensive later on.
With mika it works differently. You connect your bank account, upload your receipts, and mika's AI takes over checking the receipts, assigning the accounts and matching everything automatically. Our trained bookkeepers handle quality control. The annual financial statements and all four returns are generated directly out of your bookkeeping, without you booking anything yourself or filling in forms. With a few clicks you transmit them to the Finanzamt straight from mika.
If it becomes clear that you will not make the date, you should apply for an extension before July 31: write an informal letter to the Finanzamt with a realistic new date and a short explanation. Book a slot with our team as well. We will look together at which catch-up date is realistic and support you directly with the next steps. That way you can start on your 2025 annual financial statements with mika right away.
Annual Financial Statement 2025, done simply with mika. No tax advisor, no bookkeeping on your own.
mika analyzes your receipts, automatically flags errors and deadlines, and gives you valuable insights. If you need it, our experts are there to answer your questions.
Connect your bank account
Onboarding takes about 15 minutes. Company name, tax number, business address, chart of accounts (SKR03 or SKR04), and bank connection setup. mika connects to your bank via a PSD2-compliant interface and automatically imports all transactions from the 2025 fiscal year. You can link multiple accounts and credit cards at the same time, everything comes together in one place. If older transactions are missing, you can submit bank statements as PDF or CSV and our team will import them manually.
Upload all your 2025 receipts at once
You upload all of the year's receipts in one go. Incoming invoices, outgoing invoices, credit card statements. This works via bulk upload with hundreds of files at once, as a ZIP archive, by email forwarding to your personal mika address, or via Google Drive sync. You don't need to pre-sort or rename anything, mika automatically recognizes what type of document it is, classifies it directly, and automatically rejects duplicate uploads so no booking gets entered twice.
mika's AI books it, you work through the to-dos
mika's AI checks every receipt for completeness under §14 UStG, assigns it to the correct account in your chart of accounts, and matches it to the right bank transaction. Up to 95 percent of bookings run fully automatically. Anything that can't be clearly matched shows up as a to-do with a concrete suggestion and an explanation, you decide, and mika learns from it. Recurring payments like rent or insurance are automatically recognized by mika over time. Once all to-dos are at zero, your 2025 bookkeeping is complete.
Create the annual financial statement and file the returns
Once your bookkeeping is complete, mika guides you step by step through the annual financial statement: a completeness check, review of the bookings by our trained bookkeepers, and your sign-off as managing director. Balance sheet, profit and loss statement, and notes are generated directly from your bookkeeping. Corporate tax, trade tax, and annual VAT returns are created in mika and transmitted to the tax office directly through mika, no separate ELSTER organizational certificate needed. The Bundesanzeiger XML for the disclosure requirement is included as well.
mika is a start-up from Berlin that has developed AI-based accounting software for other founders. Our goal is to give growing companies the opportunity to organize their taxes and invoices efficiently and without extensive accounting knowledge. mika's AI tool supports all daily workflows in accounting, decrypts letters from authorities and shows where you can optimize and save your finances.
Late submission could result in fines of between €2,500 and €25,000. The Federal Office of Justice may impose these penalties if the annual financial statements are not submitted on time. For micro-corporations, the fine can be reduced to €500, but this is also an avoidable expense.
In contrast to conventional accounting software such as sevdesk or lexoffice, mika focuses specifically on preparing annual financial statements. While these programs are excellent for ongoing bookkeeping, they do not provide comprehensive AI-powered support for the complex process of financial statements. With mika, you get a specialized solution that guides you through every step, provides you with the necessary explanations and helps you prepare a legally compliant annual financial statement without a tax advisor.
The annual financial statements are a set of documents required by law that present the financial situation of your company at the end of a financial year. They typically comprise a balance sheet, a profit and loss statement and notes. Corporations such as GmbHs and UGs are required to prepare their annual financial statements and to disclose them to the Federal Gazette.
Yes, absolutely! As managing director of a GmbH or UG, you can prepare your annual financial statements yourself. There is no legal obligation to hire a tax advisor. With the support of mika, you can carry out this process yourself easily, cost-effectively and in compliance with the law, without needing expertise in tax law.
Yes, mika also supports non-profit limited liability companies (gGmbHs) and associations in preparing their annual financial statements. Our AI is trained to take into account the special requirements and tax peculiarities of non-profit organizations. Simply book a free consultation to find out more about the specific solutions for your gGmbH or club.
Of course! You can simply request a trial (at the top of the page). However, we recommend a short consultation call with our sales team. In it, we can give you a quick tour of the software so that you can get the most out of the trial time. Important: mika only develops its full added value when we take over your entire accounting and you can fully concentrate on your business.