Kontist for Expats 💜
Are you self-employed in 🇩🇪 ?
Focus on doing what you love by avoiding German bureaucracy.
Professional tax service- We speak English
- Free Product Consultation
offered by Kontist Steuerberatungsgesellschaft mbH
A Tax Advisory specialised for your needs?
Our services at a glance:
Business Registration
Save yourself the hassle of registering your business at the Finanzamt
Premium Business Banking*
Digital business banking with Visa card, tax forecast and integrated invoicing tool
Bookkeeping in Realtime
Self-learning auto categorisation & receipt scanning for easy digitisation
Automatic Tax Reserves
Save your estimated taxes automatically & avoid unpleasant surprises
Business & private Tax Return
Yearly tax declaration, always on schedule so you never miss a deadline
Consulting
Our tax experts talk to your local tax authority & are always happy to help with tax-related questions (Some consulting services require a fee.).
*offered by Kontist GmbH
Don't speak German (yet)?
No problem. We offer all our services in English!
No matter whether you talk to customer support, our tax experts or use the App.
Want to learn more about self-employment & taxes? Join the Kontist Community!
Benefit from regular content, webinars & events tailored to the needs of self-employed like you!
Kontist for Expats 💜
Read why our Expat customers love the Kontist Tax Service. All have used the Tax Service for at least 3 months.
Tax Advisory, reinvented.
Our mission: Improving the lives of solopreneurs by simplifying financial admin tasks and giving them peace of mind.
Kontist Tax Service
Completely digital service tailored to needs of the self-employed
Transparent monthly fixed fee
Full support in English
Classical Tax Advisory
Service for self-employed and support in English often not possible
In-person meetings and subsequent invoicing partly based on effort, time or value
Lots of physical paperwork: digital and paper receipts need to be collected and sorted
How does it work?
In 5 easy steps
1. Onboarding
When you subscribe to the Kontist Tax Service through the Kontist App, we will call you to clarify the start date for your financial bookkeeping.
The set start date for your financial bookkeeping will impact which tax declarations are going to be submitted on your behalf by the Kontist Tax Advisory. After your start date has been set, you’ll be notified in the mobile App to sign a Power of Attorney and fill out your tax data.
The Kontist App serves as your ticket to all services offered. To use the Kontist Tax Service you need to use the included Kontist bank account, offered by Kontist GmbH as your business account. You can start using the bank account even before the official start date of your financial bookkeeping.
Our tax experts are only able to properly take care of your financial bookkeeping when all your business transactions are visible in the Kontist App.
2. Receipt Management
After your onboarding is complete, the Kontist Tax Advisory's accounting team will take over your financial bookkeeping. As no transaction can be booked without a receipt, it is essential that you submit receipts and invoices as soon as you have them.
We made it easy for you to submit receipts in three different ways.
You can do so by either
1. scanning and uploading paper receipts in the Kontist App,
2. by sending them us via Email, or
3. by submitting digital receipts in the Kontist Web App.
A push message will remind you in case a receipt is missing - so no need to worry!
3. Invoicing
It is essential that you create legally compliant invoices when you invoice your clients as a business in Germany. If you invoice in Euros, you can use the Kontist Invoicing Tool in the Kontist Web App.
You can duplicate previously created invoices for recurring customers.
The invoice dashboard on the Web App gives you an overview of paid and pending invoices. In case you use a different invoice tool, simply forward them to us via Email.
Once the invoice is paid by your client, it will be automatically attached to the incoming transaction matching the invoice amount and will be booked into your bookkeeping as income.
4. Bookkeeping & Taxes
As a business in Germany, you have an obligation to take care of your financial bookkeeping. When you are a customer of the Kontist Tax Service, your financial bookkeeping will be done by the Kontist Tax Advisory on top of your business and private tax declarations.
In order for us to do our job, all your business-related income and expenses should be reflected on the Kontist bank account - so avoid using other bank accounts or cash.
If you submit invoices or receipts through the app by the end of each calendar month, an intelligent algorithm will automatically assign a bookkeeping category to each business transaction with a receipt. In the app you can view the respective categories - in real time. Each assigned category is then manually verified by the Kontist Tax Advisory and will be booked in the accounting system.
Based on the financial bookkeeping, the Kontist Tax Advisory will then be able to take care of all your tax matters including
- Advance VAT return (“Umsatzsteuer-Voranmeldung”)
- Business Evaluation Assessment (BWA)
- Yearly income tax declaration (Steuererklärung)
Yes, it is as easy as that!
Lean back and focus on doing what you love while we do what we love - your taxes! :)
5. Ongoing Support
Whether the German tax system with its infamous bureaucracy still confuses you or you're in doubt regarding your bookkeeping, we're happy to help!
The Kontist Tax Service subscription includes access to consultations from Kontist Tax Advisory in English, which cover the following consultation topics:
- Consultations based on your transactions
- Consultation around creating invoices
- VAT analysis of invoices
- Consultations on business expenses such as home office, company car, travel expenses
- Consultations on reverse-charge procedures
- Answers to questions concerning tax declarations, submitted by the Kontist Tax Advisory
- Consultations on fixed assets and depreciations
In addition, the Kontist Tax Advisory will be happy to advise you on many other tax issues, such as cryptocurrencies or the purchase of real estate for an additional fee.
It's as easy as that!
Do your thing, not your taxes!
Never forget a deadline or prepayment again and focus on your job. We take care of your tax issues and the communication with the tax office.
One app, one account and real people.
Although we're fully digital, you can always talk to our tax experts.
Everything in one place.
With digital premium business banking included, the Kontist App covers all your business financials.
More time for what really matters!
Focus on your business while just one App handles your financial management.
"If you are not sure what you need to do, just leave it to the hands of experts. It’ll give you peace of mind."
Kontist Tax Service
offered by Kontist Steuerberatungsgesellschaft mbH
- Tax return (business & private)
- Premium banking offered by Kontist GmbH
- Monthly financial bookkeeping
FAQ
For whom can we offer Kontist Tax Service?
Currently, we can only offer you the Kontist Tax Service if you are a “Freelancer” (German Freiberufler), Sole proprietor (Einzelunternehmen) or Trade business (Gewerbetreibend) and registered in Germany. We do not support the following German business types: AG, GbR, GmbH, KG, Ltd., OHG, or UG.
Additionally, the following guidelines apply cumulatively:
- You do not have cash income.
- You do not sell and ship physical goods.
For internal administrative reasons, we reserve the right to exclude certain professions or industries from the Kontist Tax Service, including craftspeople, cleaners, artists and restaurant proprietors.
The Kontist Tax Service is only available for solo self-employed individuals who use the Kontist Premium business bank account as their primary business account.
If you are not a Kontist Premium banking customer yet, the upgrade to Premium is already included in the fee.
Which services are included?
You can find a detailed list of services here.
What services does Kontist Tax Service not offer?
Kontist Steuerberatung is not yet able to offer the following matters:
- Form FW (funding of home ownership) and Form L (agriculture and forestry)
Kontist Steuerberatung does not offer the following:
- Tax declarations for past years (only in exceptional cases)
- Assistance in applying for or settling Corona aid and other governmental support programs
- Consultation about legal forms
- Consultation on wage tax
- Consultation on social security
What if the service starts throughout the year?
If you start with the Tax Service throughout the year, all monthly fees for the previous months of the respective year will accrue retroactively.
Does my citizenship influence your decision to take me on as a customer?
You don’t need to have German citizenship to open a Kontist account, but you do need to have a German address.
However, Solaris as our banking partner excludes the opening of accounts for US citizens. The reason for this is that for US citizens there are additional information obligations towards US institutions (FATCA), which cannot be mapped.
In all other cases, citizenship has no influence on whether you can open a bank account with us. Please note, however, that in order to open an account you will need to verify your identity via the VideoIDent provider IDnow. Depending on the country, IDnow only accepts certain identification documents. You can find a detailed list here.
You qualify for the Tax Service if you're able to open a Kontist bank account.
Stay up to date with the latest topics on self-employment!
We indicate that the services of Kontist Steuerberatung are conducted by Kontist Steuerberatungsgesellschaft mbH. Support in tax-related topics such as machine-aided bookkeeping is provided by Kontist Service GmbH. Kontist does not offer support in tax-related topics nor tax advisory services, but conveys these services between you and our partners Kontist Steuerberatungsgellschaft mbH and Kontist Service GmbH. Please find our Terms & Conditions here.