How long does a German tax refund take?
- Faster cases~26 days
- Average cases~49 days
- Slower casesUp to 5 months
Across Germany the average wait for a tax assessment (Steuerbescheid) was about 50 days in 2025 — but which office handles your file matters more than any national figure. The Bund der Steuerzahler puts Hessen fastest at 41.1 days and Bremen slowest at 56.2; a separate analysis of over a million returns found individual offices ranging from 28.4 days (Zwiesel, Bavaria) to 90.4 days (Berlin International). Berlin is the paradox: among the fastest states overall, yet home to the slowest single office in the country.
More details
The biggest factor is not geography but whether your return is processed automatically or pulled for manual review. Fully automated returns have come back in under two weeks, while a file that needs a caseworker can run to several months. Filing electronically via ELSTER and keeping the return simple both help. Processing generally starts in mid-March, so submitting in the very first days of the season does not move you up the queue. The legal maximum is six months.
One gap worth knowing: North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, does not report a figure, so it is missing from the state table below.
By state
| Baden-Württemberg | 45 days | 1 |
| Bayern | 42 days | 1 |
| Berlin | 42 days | 1 |
| Brandenburg | 48 days | 1 |
| Bremen | 56 days | 1 |
| Hamburg | 44 days | 1 |
| Hessen | 41 days | 1 |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | 50 days | 1 |
| Niedersachsen | 46 days | 1 |
| Rheinland-Pfalz | 46 days | 1 |
| Saarland | 51 days | 1 |
| Sachsen | 42 days | 1 |
| Sachsen-Anhalt | 44 days | 1 |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 46 days | 1 |
| Thüringen | 45 days | 1 |
Recent experiences
Filed electronically and processed fully automatically, with no queries from the tax office.
Same filer as the 13-day case, but this return needed manual review — that alone tripled the wait.
Around eight weeks; the filer noted it took longer than in previous years.
Roughly five months for a 2023 return submitted in November 2024.
Sources
Information is for general knowledge only.