Working in Germany but receiving salary elsewhere

hi,

I am an engineer and i`m working now in Germany for an automotive company since february... but i`m actualy employed in other EU country and get my salary there ...of course i pay all my taxes there too.
I`m only transfered (delegation) to Germany for a limited period of time ...but for some reasons this period has been longer than first expected.

I have a rented apartment ,a bank account at Sparkasse , i`m registerd at "Rathaus" and had a car registered on my name here in Germany.

Last week i got a letter from Bundesfinanzamt or something like that with my TAX unique personal ID ...with wich i can pay taxes.
But i don`t pay taxes here or do i have to?

One of my german coleagues told me that if i live more than 185 day/year in germany I need to pay my taxes here.

I told my employer about this ...and he said i`m perfectly legal working here and that i don`t need to pay taxes here as i pay them in another EU country.

has anyone experienced this kind of situation before? any advice?

thanks

I believe you are tax liable from your 181st day onwards. You need not count full days you spent out of the country on holidays, business trips etc.

Your employer is wrong. If you stay longer than 180 days, Germany gets first dibs at your taxable income and you have to pay German taxes. You will, however, not be taxed twice, so you should be able to claim back any taxes you paid in another EU country.

I was in a similar situation when I was working on the new Rolls-Royce Motor Cars factory in Goodwood, UK. The tax laws can become quite complicated so you need a tax specialist to help you make your tax declaration otherwise you can end up getting shafted pretty easily.

I suspect your employer is wrong (see last point). That statement was probably on the assumption that you remain a UK resident who just did stints abroad. Different story if you choose to be a resident in another country.

When I did work for Uk employers abroad, they were scrupulous about making sure our tax positions were clear (and if necessary called us back from overseas to make sure there was no ambiguity around rules like the 180 day one). A blithe "it's all OK" is not rigorous enough. Even if you were a UK resident, they ought to still be making sure your periods in and out of UK fit with UK tax rules - which have implications on them as employer as well as you.

Your employer is certainly wrong, as others have said, and now it's time for him to pay for a tax advisor for you to sort it all out for you. KPMG have been helping me with my taxes following my recent stay in India and they're pretty good.

and what would be the solution then ...to avoid taxes in Germany? which are pretty high ...ok ...higher than in my country

will they accept some papers from my employer that proves that stayed less than 180 day here?

keep a diary of holidays, business trips and other days you spent outside Germany (must at least 24hrs to count) and keep all receipts showing you weren't in the country, even private ones.

Don't try to avoid taxes as that is, rather obviously, illegal. Your employer should pay all additional liabilities for you and at the end of your stay or tax year conduct a tax equalisation calculation to ensure that you pay no more tax than you would have done had you stayed at home. This is what the tax accountant does for you. Normally when sent overseas your employer will pay you additional benefits, like paying for your accommodation when abroad, expenses, additional money for the trouble of being away from home, whatever. These are usually paid tax free although some are taxable and the accountant will work out what taxes are to be paid and to whom.

At the end of the assignment, or the end of a tax year, whichever comes first, the tax accountant will calculate the tax due in Germany and in your home country and get the employer to pay it for you, then work out what tax you would have paid had you stayed home and compare that to the tax you actually paid abroad and get your employer to refund the difference to you. As long as you continue paying tax in one country you should avoid a nasty shock, although taxes are higher in Germany and at the year end you may get a bill but any reasonable employer will pay that for you. It is very complicated, get an accountant to do it for you. This is not your problem - if your employer sent you abroad without realising how complex it would be then let this be a lesson to him...

I have been checking if you could be rated as "Entsendet" (I think "seconded" is the right English expression for that) by your employer and what the income-tax-results would be from this.
In order to make this work, you would have had to be sent for a specific project for a clearly specified time from your employer to Germany. Furthermore you would have had to keep your apartment/house in your country of origin in such a way that you could return to it at any time... only then could there be a chance that you would be taxed at home and not in Germany.
If these paramteres to not apply to you, especially if you have not kept your apartment/house in your country of origin, than you have become a full resident in Germany with the liability to be taxed on your worlwide income from here...

As others have pointed out: get yourself a good tax advisor who knows about double taxation issues and all that...

Cheerio