Yearly income tax declarations

Hi,
After living here in Germany for a while we still can't get our head around how the tax system works. When is the yearly tax declaration due and is it compulsary for everyone? Is the request for it sent out by the Finanzamt or do we have to contact them ourselves? When we moved here we were told that the Finanzamt would send out the stuff they need to know but now we are getting unsure... Anyone know more?

If you are a totally standard employee with no side income that you would obviously declare <cough> then no need to file a return.
Your employer sends in your tax card at the end of the year and any variations of under/over payment are then ironed out if your income has significantly changed over the year.

Normally, the time limit ends May 31st of the following year. (§149 AO) A tax consultant has more options. (If not, what would they do the rest of the year?)


Basically yes (§25 EStG). But not if your income consists completely or partly of wages, from which tax has already been subtracted by the employer. In that case you have to do your tax declaration only if one of the reasons in this paragraph are met: §46 EStG (There are a lot of reasons, why you would have to do your declaration.)

Keep in mind that if your only income derives from your employment status, you are actually paying more taxes than you have to. So doing the tax declaration might get you some money back.


If you have to declare your income (see above), you have to contact them yourself. "They didnt ask" is not a valid excuse.

That depends what you can get away with fiddling writing off and that is getting harder and harder to do for relatively standard 0815 office monkeys.

That's really not true (but I agree it's getting harder) - travel to and from work is deductible (if more than a 20km trip, but likely to be reduced shortly), language lessons if you are an ex-pat, donations to charity, life insurances, excessive medical bills, labour costs for any work done in the home, and of course relocation costs if you are coming or going from Germany during the tax year. This can all add up to quite a bit. The taxman errs on his side as far as standard deductions are concerned - it's your right to claim the excesses back.

Aye, IF those kind of things apply to you then claim if it is worth the hassle but sadly nothing for me to claim back.

Be aware that if you have any income in other countries such as back home then you have to declare this (form AUS) in Germany.

This opens up cans of worms concerning taxation agreements between various countresi which may or may not be in your favour.

Alternatively you can forget that you have such income & hope that your "home" tax people don't give the German Finanzamt a freindly heads-up...

If I had only pressed the reload button, I could have saved some time. I should have known that YSL6 would beat me to listing the deductible costs.
Some more: job training costs, job application costs, 3rd party liability insurance, several other insurances, alimonies, ...
The wonders of the german tax law are endless...

Why not just join the "income tax help club" in Munich and have them do all the paperwork for you? They even have English-speaking consultants. We use the club in B-W.