Germany's 10-Day Rule 2026: How to Assign Year-End VAT & EÜR Payments Correctly

You pay the VAT prepayment for December 2025 on January 11, 2026. Is it a 2025 or a 2026 business expense? The answer sits inside Germany's 10-day rule under § 11 EStG. Used correctly, it shifts deductions and liquidity into the right tax year. Missed, you lose the expense entirely or push it into the wrong bracket. 2026 is the trickiest year in a while: January 10 falls on a Saturday.

What the 10-day rule actually does

Freelancers and self-employed professionals who calculate profit using the Einnahmenüberschussrechnung (EÜR) follow the Zufluss-Abfluss-Prinzip – the cash-basis principle. Income counts in the year it arrives; expenses count in the year they leave the account. § 11 EStG creates a deliberate exception: regularly recurring payments around the turn of the year get assigned to the year they economically belong to.

The window: December 22 to January 10. Inside those 20 days the special rule applies. Outside it, the ordinary cash-basis principle is back in force.

Three conditions the payment must meet

• Recurring on a fixed schedule: monthly, quarterly, or yearly. One-off payments don't qualify.
• Cash movement inside the window: the debit or credit must hit between Dec 22 and Jan 10.
• Clear economic year: the payment must unambiguously belong to a specific year – December's rent, for example, belongs to the prior year.

The classic case: the December VAT prepayment

The most common scenario is the VAT prepayment (UStVA) for December (monthly filers) or Q4 (quarterly filers). Both are normally due on January 10. If you file as an EÜR user and pay by January 10, 2026, the VAT becomes a 2025 business expense – even though the money only leaves your account in 2026.

Example: a freelancer files her UStVA for December 2025 on January 8, 2026, and pays €2,400 the same day. That payment reduces her 2025 profit – not 2026. Without the 10-day rule, she would only be able to deduct it the following year.

Watch out in 2026: January 10 is a Saturday

This is where it gets thorny. Under § 108 (3) AO, the VAT prepayment's due date shifts to the next business day – Monday, January 12, 2026. For the filing itself, that's fine. For the 10-day rule, the Federal Tax Court (BFH) used to apply a stricter test: payment had to happen inside the 10 days AND at the regular due date.

The BFH refined this in 2022 (VIII R 25/20): if the deferred due date falls on a business day still inside the 10-day window, the rule applies. If the deferred due date already sits outside the window – like January 12, 2026 – the rule no longer applies. In practice, for 2026:

• Safe: pay by Friday, January 9, 2026 – still inside the 10-day window and before the weekend.
• Risky: pay on Monday, January 12, 2026 – the tax office will book the payment into 2026.
• SEPA direct debit: if you've granted the tax office a SEPA mandate, the timely initiation counts – not the later settlement date. It's the most reliable solution across the year boundary.

Other typical payments under the rule

• Office or coworking rent (January rent debited on December 28 economically belongs to the new year)
• Künstlersozialkasse (KSK) artist social insurance contributions
• Professional liability and other commercial insurance premiums
• Software and SaaS subscriptions billed on a fixed cycle
• Leasing instalments for company vehicles or equipment
• Recurring incoming fees from retainer clients or subscription products

What doesn't qualify

One-off payments – like the tax advisor's invoice for the annual financial statements or a one-time equipment purchase – stay out. The rule also doesn't apply once you've switched from EÜR to double-entry bookkeeping or run a GmbH/UG. Those entities follow the accrual principle: economic origin counts, not cash flow.

The three most common mistakes

1. Treating one-off payments as recurring. Pushing a one-time tax advisor invoice into the prior year is the first thing an auditor will challenge.
2. Confusing invoice date with payment date. For the 10-day rule, only the debit or credit date matters – not when the invoice was issued.
3. Ignoring the weekend effect. The big one for 2026: pay on January 12 and you lose the 2025 deduction. Plan three days early, send the wire on the 7th.

Use it strategically: shift tax into the right year

The 10-day rule isn't a bookkeeping technicality – it's one of the few legal levers an EÜR filer has to actively manage taxable profit. Strong 2025, weaker 2026 forecast? Pull the December VAT prepayment into 2025 to dent the higher profit. Expect a stronger 2026? Pay deliberately after January 10 to relieve the new year. Combined with planned investments, special depreciation, and prepayments, the room to maneuver is real.

Let Norman handle the rule automatically

Norman detects recurring payments across the year-end automatically and assigns them to the correct tax year – VAT prepayments, KSK contributions, software subscriptions, leasing. AI bookkeeping reads your bank feed, proposes the right period assignment, and warns when the weekend effect threatens the deduction. The tax filing for self-employed then pulls the values straight into your EÜR and annual VAT return.

Conclusion

The 10-day rule looks like a detail and behaves like a lever. For 2026, the Saturday cutoff means you need either crisp coordination with your tax advisor or bookkeeping that flags the risk before it's too late. Pay on time, stick to genuinely recurring payments, and avoid the typical EÜR mistakes – you'll preserve liquidity and tax savings without taking risks. The 2026 tax calendar keeps the key deadlines visible all year.