EÜR: Germany's Income Surplus Calculation Made Simple

The EÜR: It Sounds Scary, But It’s Not

The Einnahmen-Überschuss-Rechnung — EÜR for short — is one of those German tax terms that makes freelancers immediately think of complicated forms and expensive tax advisors. But at its core, the EÜR is exactly what the name says: you add up your income, subtract your expenses, and what’s left is your profit.

Yet many freelancers pay €500 or more to a Steuerberater for their EÜR. That can be worth it if you have a complex business — but for most freelancers, the EÜR is genuinely manageable on your own.

In short: The EÜR is a simplified profit calculation for freelancers and small businesses. The formula: Business Income − Business Expenses = Profit. You submit it as Anlage EÜR along with your tax return.

Who Needs an EÜR?

The EÜR is the standard method for freelancers. You need to create one if you’re:

• A freelancer (Freiberufler) under § 18 EStG — regardless of your revenue
• A trade business owner (Gewerbetreibender) with profit below €60,000 or revenue below €600,000 per year

If you’re a trade business owner exceeding these thresholds, you must switch to double-entry bookkeeping and a balance sheet (Bilanz). Freelancers are exempt from this — you always use the EÜR, no matter how much you earn.

EÜR vs. Bilanz (Balance Sheet)

	EÜR	Bilanz
Effort	Low	High
Principle	Cash basis	Accrual basis
Bookkeeping	Single-entry	Double-entry
Who	Freelancers, small trade businesses	Large trade businesses, corporations
Requirement	Default for freelancers	Only when thresholds are exceeded

The Basic Formula

The EÜR follows a simple formula:

Business Income − Business Expenses = Profit (or Loss)

That’s it. All you need to do is accurately track your income and expenses and assign them to the right categories.

Business Income: What Counts?

Your business income includes everything you earn through your freelance activity:

• Fees and compensation for your services
• Benefits in kind and non-cash benefits
• Income from side activities related to your business
• Reimbursements (e.g., travel costs reimbursed by a client)
• Collected VAT (Umsatzsteuer) — if you’re VAT-registered

Important: The EÜR uses the cash basis principle (Zuflussprinzip, § 11 EStG). Income counts in the year the money actually hits your bank account — not when you send the invoice. If you invoice in December 2025 but the client pays in January 2026, that income belongs to 2026.

Business Expenses: The Key Categories

This is where it gets interesting — because every business expense reduces your profit and therefore your tax bill. The Anlage EÜR groups expenses into fixed categories:

Office and Workspace (Raumkosten)

• Rent for an office or coworking space
• Home office flat rate (€6 per day, max €1,260/year)
• Proportional costs for a dedicated home office room (rent, electricity, heating)

Work Equipment and Materials

• Computer, laptop, software
• Office supplies, printer cartridges
• Professional literature
• Tools and materials (depending on your field)

Depreciation (AfA)

• Purchases over €800 net are depreciated over their useful life
• Exception: computers and software can be fully deducted immediately since 2021
• Low-value assets (GWG) up to €800 net are deducted immediately

Travel Costs (Fahrtkosten)

• Distance allowance: €0.30/km (first 20 km), €0.38/km (from 21st km)
• Or actual costs with a logbook (Fahrtenbuch)
• Train tickets, public transport, taxi for business purposes

Phone and Internet

• Business contract: fully deductible
• Private contract: proportional (flat 20% or by actual business share)

Insurance

• Professional liability (Berufshaftpflicht)
• Legal protection (business portion)
• Cyber insurance

Professional Development

• Seminars, workshops, conferences
• Online courses
• Professional literature and subscriptions

Other Expenses

• Tax advisory and accounting software
• Marketing and advertising
• Client entertainment (70% of the bill)
• Professional association fees
• Postage and shipping
• Business bank account fees

Practical Example: A Freelance Designer’s EÜR

Let’s look at a concrete example. Lisa is a freelance graphic designer preparing her EÜR for 2025:

Business Income

Item	Amount
Design project fees	€45,000
Total Business Income	€45,000

Business Expenses

Category	Item	Amount
Workspace	Home office (200 days x €6)	€1,200
Workspace	Coworking (20 days x €120/month proportional)	€2,400
Equipment	MacBook Pro (immediate deduction)	€2,000
Software	Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma, Notion	€600
Phone/Internet	Mobile + internet (60% business)	€720
Insurance	Professional liability + legal protection	€1,200
Travel	Client visits (2,000 km x €0.30)	€600
Travel	Accommodation + meals	€200
Training	Online courses, conference	€400
Total Business Expenses		€9,320

Result

Profit: €45,000 − €9,320 = €35,680

Lisa pays income tax on this profit of €35,680 — not on the full €45,000. Every documented business expense directly reduces her tax bill.

The Cash Basis Principle (Zufluss-/Abflussprinzip)

The cash basis principle is the most important feature of the EÜR. It means:

• Income counts when the money flows in (arrives in your bank account)
• Expenses count when the money flows out (leaves your bank account)

The date of the invoice or delivery doesn’t matter. This makes things simpler than a balance sheet, but it has consequences:

Example: You buy a new laptop in December 2025 for €1,500. The expense counts for 2025 — even if you don’t start using the laptop until January. Conversely, if a client commissions you in December but doesn’t pay until February, the fee belongs to the next year.

Tip: At the end of the year, you can strategically time purchases to influence your tax bill. Have major purchases planned that you can pay before December 31? That reduces your profit for the current year.

Exception: The 10-Day Rule

There’s one important exception: regularly recurring income or expenses that are due shortly before or after the turn of the year (within 10 days) are assigned to the year they economically belong to. For example, January rent paid on December 28 counts toward the new year, not the old one.

The Anlage EÜR in ELSTER

You submit the EÜR as Anlage EÜR along with your income tax return. Since 2017, electronic filing through ELSTER (elster.de) is mandatory for everyone — a paper summary is no longer accepted.

The Anlage EÜR has several sections:

1. Business income (lines 11–22)
2. Business expenses (lines 23–65)
3. Profit calculation (line 72)
4. Additional information (e.g., vehicle costs, workspace costs)

You need to assign your income and expenses to the predefined categories. It sounds tedious, but if you’ve been tracking consistently throughout the year, it’s mostly just data entry at the end.

Common EÜR Mistakes

1. Recording personal withdrawals as business expenses — if you take money from your business account for personal use, that’s a private withdrawal (Privatentnahme), not an expense.

2. Forgetting VAT — if you’re VAT-registered, you must record collected VAT as income and paid input VAT (Vorsteuer) as an expense. Kleinunternehmer can skip this.

3. Depreciating instead of deducting immediately — purchases up to €800 net are deducted in full right away. Many freelancers mistakenly depreciate them over several years.

4. Not keeping receipts — you must keep receipts for 10 years. Without a receipt, the Finanzamt will disallow the expense during an audit.

5. Not splitting mixed use — if something is used both privately and professionally (e.g., smartphone, car), you may only claim the business portion. Document the split.

6. Claiming entertainment expenses incorrectly — only 70% is deductible, and you must note the occasion, attendees, and business relationship on the receipt.

Staying Organized Year-Round

The EÜR becomes easy when you stay on top of things throughout the year. A few tips:

• Separate business account — keep personal and business finances apart. This saves hours of sorting later.
• Record receipts immediately — photograph every receipt on the day of purchase. Don’t wait until December.
• Categorize monthly — spend 30 minutes once a month assigning all income and expenses to EÜR categories.
• Track VAT separately — if you’re VAT-registered, keep track of VAT amounts alongside your regular bookkeeping.

Tip: The better organized you are during the year, the less work you’ll have at tax time. The EÜR often takes just an hour instead of an entire weekend.

How Restio Helps

Restio makes your EÜR practically effortless:

• Automatic categorization — photograph receipts and Restio assigns them to EÜR categories (workspace, equipment, travel, etc.)
• Year-round overview — see how your income and expenses break down at any time
• CSV export by EÜR categories — at year-end, export all your data sorted by Anlage EÜR categories. Perfect for ELSTER or your Steuerberater
• Never miss a deduction — the AI advisor reminds you of typical expenses you might have forgotten

Try Restio free for 14 days and make your EÜR as painless as possible.

Conclusion

The EÜR is not rocket science. At its core, it’s a simple calculation: what did you earn, what did you spend, what’s left? If you collect receipts and track your income and expenses consistently throughout the year, filling out the Anlage EÜR at year-end is quick work. You’ll save yourself the tax advisor fee — or at least hand them perfectly sorted data that cuts their work (and your bill) significantly.

Further Reading

• Federal Ministry of Finance: Income Tax
• § 4 Abs. 3 EStG — Profit Calculation via EÜR
• ELSTER: Anlage EÜR