Am I required to submit Form EÜR (net income method)?
The "income surplus calculation - EÜR form" standardises the income surplus calculation.
In the EÜR, you must provide detailed information about your income and expenses.
Until 2016, you were only required to submit this form if your business income exceeded 17,500 Euro and the profit was not determined through accounting (genuine bookkeeping). However, since the 2017 tax year, the simplification rule has been abolished, which allowed a non-formal income surplus calculation to be submitted instead of the formal "EÜR form" if business income was less than 17,500 Euro. Now, all taxpayers who determine their profit using the income surplus calculation are generally required to complete a standardised "EÜR form" and also submit it electronically to the tax authorities, just like the income tax return.
The previous statutory hardship rule still applies: To avoid "unreasonable hardship", the tax office may allow the tax return to be submitted to the tax office in paper form using the officially prescribed form (§ 25 para. 4 sentence 2 EStG; § 13a para. 3 EStG; § 18 para. 3 sentence 3 UStG; § 14a sentence 2 GewStG). In addition to the individual legal regulations, the Fiscal Code contains a general hardship regulation (§ 150 para. 8 AO): The tax office can waive electronic data transmission if it is economically or personally unreasonable for the taxpayer.
This is particularly the case if the taxpayer does not have the necessary technical equipment and creating the technical means for remote data transmission of the officially prescribed data set would only be possible with considerable financial effort, or if the taxpayer is not or only partially able to use the remote data transmission options due to their individual knowledge and skills. However, the tax authorities very rarely grant exceptions!
Check all your EÜR data for plausibility and compare them with data from other entrepreneurs if possible. If your details deviate significantly from the usual ones, the tax office may be prompted to conduct an individual audit.
If you wish to submit your tax return and especially your profit calculation for freelance or business income in paper form, you must submit a "hardship application under § 5b para. 2 sentence 2 EStG in conjunction with § 150 para. 8 AO" to the tax office, provide sufficient justification, and refer to the current rulings.
Important: According to the BFH, the hardship application may only refer to the respective assessment period (BFH ruling of 16.6.2020, VIII R 29/17). This means the application must be submitted anew for each year. It must not state "I request exemption from the assessment period ...", but only "I request exemption for the assessment period ...".
