Tax saving automatically moves money from your main account into a separate tax reserve sub-account, so you don’t accidentally spend money you’ll owe in taxes later. You choose to reserve 90%, 100%, or 110%<\/b> of your currently estimated tax obligations, and Accountable handles the transfers for you.<\/p>\n
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Tax saving is a convenience tool to help you avoid spending money you’ll likely owe \u2014 it’s not an official tax calculation. Accountable’s estimate is based on your bookkeeping in the app, so if your records are incomplete, if you have income or deductions outside the app, or once your official return is filed, the real amount can differ from what’s reserved.<\/p>\n
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The reserve covers what you owe up to and including the current quarter<\/b>, based on your actual bookkeeping to date. It does not<\/b> try to cover taxes on income you haven’t earned yet later in the year. In other words: it keeps pace with what you’ve actually billed and spent so far \u2014 it isn’t a forecast of your full annual tax bill.<\/p>\n
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VAT and income tax are calculated completely separately<\/b>, then added together:<\/p>\n VAT<\/b>: We sum all your open VAT positions (current quarter + any unpaid past quarters). If the total works out to a refund rather than an amount owed, VAT contributes \u20ac0<\/b> to the reserve \u2014 a VAT refund never reduces what you set aside for income tax, and vice versa.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Income tax<\/b>: We sum the current quarter’s estimate (based on a projected tax rate applied to your actual income so far) together with any open positions from past tax years. If that combined total is a refund, income tax also contributes \u20ac0<\/b>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n \n Each tax type is floored at \u20ac0 individually before being added to the total \u2014 a refund on one type can never offset a debt on the other.<\/p>\n \n Example:<\/i> You owe \u20ac500 VAT this quarter, but you’re also owed a \u20ac700 refund from a previous VAT quarter. Your VAT position nets to \u2013\u20ac200, which floors to \u20ac0. Separately, you owe \u20ac1,000 in income tax this quarter. Your total required reserve = \u20ac0 (VAT) + \u20ac1,000 (income tax) = \u20ac1,000<\/b> \u2014 the VAT refund doesn’t reduce the income tax amount.<\/p>\n \n Past-period income tax positions are summed across all open years together<\/b>, not year by year. So a pending refund from an earlier, unresolved year is subtracted from what you owe for a more recent year.<\/p>\n \n Example:<\/i> You owe \u20ac3,000 in income tax for 2025, and you’re due a \u20ac1,200 refund from 2024 that hasn’t been paid out yet. These combine into a single past-period position of \u20ac3,000 \u2212 \u20ac1,200 = \u20ac1,800<\/b>. Your reserve target is based on this net figure, not on the \u20ac3,000 alone. This is expected \u2014 it just means the reserve reflects your net position across open years, not each year in isolation.<\/p>\n \n One nuance: for the most recent past year that hasn’t been officially filed yet (e.g., 2025 right now), the figure is based on your actual bookkeeping \u2014 it isn’t a projection, but it also isn’t a final, tax-office-confirmed amount yet.<\/p>\n \n Yes. If you’ve entered your mandatory quarterly prepayment amount, Accountable reserves whichever is higher<\/b>: our own calculated estimate, or your mandatory prepayment. The reserve will never fall short of what the tax office requires you to prepay.<\/p>\n \n Anna is a freelancer in Germany with Tax Aside set to 110%<\/b>.<\/p>\n VAT, current quarter: owes \u20ac500<\/p>\n<\/li>\n VAT, previous quarter (unpaid refund): owed a \u20ac700 refund \u2192 VAT position: 500 \u2212 700 = \u2212\u20ac200 \u2192 floors to \u20ac0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Income tax, current quarter: owes \u20ac1,000 (based on projected rate \u00d7 actual income so far)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Income tax, 2025 (unfiled): owes \u20ac3,000<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Income tax, 2024 (pending refund): owed \u20ac1,200 \u2192 Past-period income tax net: 3,000 \u2212 1,200 = \u20ac1,800 \u2192 Total income tax position: 1,000 + 1,800 = \u20ac2,800<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n \n Required reserve = \u20ac0 (VAT) + \u20ac2,800 (income tax) = \u20ac2,800 \n This is the amount Accountable will try to hold in Anna’s tax reserve sub-account.<\/p>\n \n Marking an invoice as sent affects your taxable income and your calculated provisions right away. But no money is actually transferred into your tax reserve account until that invoice is paid<\/b>. The calculation and the transfer are two separate steps.<\/p>\n \n The reserve isn’t recalculated continuously in real time \u2014 it’s recalculated overnight, typically the night following a triggering event (an invoice being paid, or new funds arriving in your main account after a previous transfer was blocked by insufficient funds).<\/p>\n \n Importantly, the automation only ever adds money to your reserve \u2014 it never removes money from it automatically.<\/b> So if your estimate goes up (for example, after you finalize a tax return or record more income), your reserve won’t “catch up” to the new, higher target until the next recalculation runs. In the meantime, you may correctly see something like “I’ve set 110%, but my reserve holds less than that” \u2014 that’s expected behavior, not a bug, while you’re waiting for the next recalculation. Conversely, if your estimate goes down, your reserve will stay at the higher amount rather than being reduced, since funds are never pulled back out automatically.<\/p>\n \n You’ll get a notification (push + email). As soon as new funds arrive in your main account, Accountable automatically retries the transfer \u2014 no action needed from you.<\/p>\n \n Tax Aside automatically includes all tax types that apply to you \u2014 VAT and income tax \u2014 so your reserve always reflects your full obligation, not just part of it. This keeps things simple and ensures nothing gets missed by accident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This FAQ explains how our automatic tax saving is calculated and manages your tax reserve sub-account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","help_label":[],"class_list":["post-31040","help_center","type-help_center","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
Why would a refund from a previous year lower my reserve?<\/h1>\n
If I’ve made quarterly prepayments (Vorauszahlungen), does that count?<\/h1>\n
A full example<\/h1>\n
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At 110%: 2,800 \u00d7 1.10 = \u20ac3,080<\/b><\/p>\nWhen does an invoice actually move money into my tax reserve?<\/h1>\n
How often is the reserve recalculated, and does it stay perfectly up to date?<\/h1>\n
What happens if there isn’t enough money in my main account to cover a transfer? <\/h1>\n
Can I choose which tax types are included?<\/h1>\n