Translate a German tax letter to English

Upload a letter from the Finanzamt or your Steuerbescheid and read it in English, with the original layout and figures.

Accepted here: .pdf, .docx, .pptx, .xlsx and more. Up to 40 MB per file, 10 files at once.

Letters from the German tax office use a vocabulary even native speakers struggle with, and they often come with a deadline. For people who moved to Germany, a correct English version of the whole letter, not a paragraph pasted into a phone app, is the fastest way to know whether to pay, object or call a tax advisor.

Translating a German tax letter

  • A Steuerbescheid usually gives you one month to object (Einspruch). The deadline is in the letter itself; translate it the day it arrives, not the week before it expires.
  • German tax vocabulary is dense: "Festsetzung", "Vorauszahlung", "Solidaritätszuschlag". The translation names each term in English so you can look it up or ask your tax advisor about it.
  • Most tax letters arrive on paper. If you use ELSTER, download the digital version from your mailbox there instead of scanning it.

German to English

German packs meaning into long compound words and puts verbs at the end of the sentence, so a good German to English translation reorders sentences rather than translating word by word. English text is usually 10 to 20 % shorter, so the translated layout has room to spare.

How it works

  1. 1

    Drop the file

    Upload the original file. The source language is detected automatically, so you don't have to pick it.

  2. 2

    Pick English

    Choose English as the target. You can add more target languages and get one translated file per language.

  3. 3

    Download the same file type

    You get the same file type back with the layout kept, ready to open in the program you used before.

What happens to your file

noll is built for documents you would not paste into a free online translator. Files are processed in EU data centres, never used to train models and permanently deleted 30 minutes after the translation finishes, or as soon as you delete them yourself. There is no document history to leak later.

How your data is handled

Machine translation, not a certified translation

noll gives you an accurate working translation fast. If an authority, court or university demands a certified or sworn translation, you still need a sworn human translator; our output is a good draft to hand them.

Pricing

Translation is billed by the page. See the current plans before you upload a large batch.

See pricing

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have to respond to a Steuerbescheid?

Usually one month from receipt to file an objection (Einspruch). The letter states the exact rule in its "Rechtsbehelfsbelehrung" section, which is translated with the rest.

My letter is on paper. How do I upload it?

Scanned PDFs are not supported yet. Take a photo of each page and upload it as JPG or PNG (preview feature), or download the digital letter from your ELSTER mailbox.

Can I translate documents from ELSTER?

Yes. Notices downloaded from ELSTER are digital PDFs and translate with their tables intact.

Can I reply to the Finanzamt in English?

The official language is German. Use the translation to understand the letter, then reply in German yourself or through a tax advisor (Steuerberater).

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Translate German Tax Letter (Steuerbescheid) to English | noll