Free tool
EU tax refund calculator
Answer four short questions about your country, your situation, your income and your deductions, and we will compute an estimate of your annual income tax refund. The calculator covers 10 European countries with 2026 planning assumptions, published-rate references where available and the most common itemised deductions. The result includes a smart suggestion engine that points out deductions you may have missed and a downloadable PDF report you can take to your accountant.
- 1Country & year›
- 2Personal status›
- 3Income›
- 4Deductions›
- 5Result
Pick your country and year
The calculator currently covers 10 European countries with published 2026 planning rates and references to official sources where available.
Why a multi-country EU tax refund estimator matters
Most online tax-refund tools are built for a single country and a single tax authority. That works fine for a German employee filing a Steuererklärung in Germany, but it falls apart the moment a freelancer working across the Belgium-Luxembourg border, or a French expat living in Spain, wants to compare the rough refund picture across two systems before committing time to the formal return.
WorkDaten's calculator was designed for the European reality of mobile, multi-country professionals. The calculation engine encodes the 2026 planning assumptions, published-rate references where available and the most common itemised deductions for ten EU markets — Germany, Austria, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Poland, Portugal and Romania — and applies them in a four-step wizard that takes about three minutes to complete. The result is an honest, conservative estimate of your annual refund or balance owed, accompanied by a smart suggestion engine that quantifies how much more you could recover by claiming common deductions you have not yet declared.
The whole calculator runs in your browser. No tax data is uploaded to any server, no email is captured, no account is required. The downloadable PDF report is generated locally and is yours to keep, share with your accountant, or attach to your formal return as a sanity check. It is not a substitute for professional tax software when you finally file — and the disclaimer says so prominently — but it removes the last excuse to leave easy refunds on the table.
10 European countries supported
Germany, Austria, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Poland, Portugal and Romania at launch — with 2026 planning assumptions and references to published rates where available, encoded for each.
Quick mode + Detailed mode
Pick Quick to apply the standard lump sum and get a result in three minutes. Switch to Detailed to itemise commute, work expenses, home office, donations, mortgage interest, pension contributions, child care and more.
Smart suggestion engine
After your first calculation, the engine highlights deductions you have not yet declared and quantifies the impact: 'Adding home office could increase your refund by EUR 240'.
Lump sum vs itemised comparison
The result page shows both options side-by-side so you instantly know whether itemising is worth the extra paperwork — most refunds increase, but for low-income employees the lump sum often wins.
Downloadable PDF report
Generate a clean A4 report with your inputs, the breakdown, the disclaimer and a link to the official tax authority for your country. Take it to your accountant or keep it as a sanity check before filing.
Privacy by design
Tax data is sensitive. The calculator runs entirely in your browser — no upload, no logging, no analytics tracker on the form, no third-party calls. Closing the tab discards everything.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the questions people most often ask before relying on the page.
- Is the result accurate enough to file my tax return?
- No — the result is an estimate based on the headline rates published by each country's tax authority. It does not factor in every personal exemption, regional add-on or income source. Use it as a sanity check before filing, then run your final return through your country's official tax software (ELSTER in Germany, impots.gouv.fr in France, Renta Web in Spain, etc.) or with a qualified accountant.
- Which countries are supported?
- At launch the calculator covers the 10 largest EU markets by population: Germany, Austria, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Poland, Portugal and Romania. Additional countries (UK, Switzerland, Nordics, Baltics) will be added gradually based on user demand.
- Why does the result for two people with the same gross income differ?
- Because of three big factors: marital status (joint filing in Germany, France and Belgium uses different tax curves), number of dependent children, and itemised deductions. A married parent with two children and a home office in Germany can recover several thousand euros more than a single colleague at the same gross.
- Should I use Quick or Detailed mode?
- Start with Quick to get a baseline number in three minutes. If the suggestion engine then highlights deductions you can claim, switch to Detailed and itemise them — the comparison panel will tell you exactly how much extra you stand to recover. For most employees, Detailed mode raises the refund by 200-800 EUR.
- Does the tool store my income or tax data?
- No. All calculations happen in your browser using JavaScript on the client. The values you enter never leave your device, no analytics tracker is loaded on the wizard pages, and the PDF report is also generated locally. Closing the browser tab discards everything.
- Why are the suggestions sometimes lower than my actual deduction?
- The suggestion engine uses conservative defaults — it would rather under-promise and let you over-deliver than the opposite. If you know your actual home office cost, work expenses or commute kilometres, type the real number into the Detailed view and the refund updates instantly.
- Can I share the PDF with my accountant?
- Yes. The PDF includes your inputs, the calculation breakdown, the deductions you declared, the disclaimer and a link to the official tax authority for your country. It is designed to be a starting point for the conversation, not a substitute for the formal return.
- Is the tool free?
- Yes. The full feature set — all 10 countries, both modes, the suggestion engine, the PDF report — is free with no signup. The site is supported by contextual advertising. Future paid features (saving multiple scenarios, multi-year history, team accounts) will be opt-in additions.