fredadi

My German citizenship ("Einbürgerung") process is on the last step, this mean that in next coming weeks I will receive a post to collect my "Urkunde", which I can then use to obtain my German passport and ID card.   The issue is that I have a planned and payed vacation (within EU) for the end of this month and I am not sure if the process will finish before that. All I have right now is my Aufenthaltstitel ("Niederlassungserlaubnis"). My passport has already been canceled by my home authorities because I cannot keep multiple nationalities.   I have 2 questions in this regards:   #1) In case I don't get my "Urkunde" before my planned vacations (within EU), can I just go ahead and travel on my Aufenthaltstitel alone? What is the worst that can happen? What law am I breaking? What is the penalty (if any) if I fail to provide my passport ("Reisepaas") upon request?   #2) If somehow I get my "Urkunde" before my planned vacations (within EU), can I travel (within EU) with this "Urkunde" alone? Because, the process of getting a passport might take another few weeks.   #3) Is there a way I don't have to cancel my paid and planned vacations (within EU)?   Any help would be highly appreciated? 

Update: After submitting the Email I got from the Polizei I waited another couple of days and then called Check24. This time there's a good news, Check24 says that Auto Europe has agreed to refund me the damage costs and that it will transfer my money during this week. Once I get my money back I will update here the amount I got back and the amount they deducted as service charges etc.   Thank you all for your help. 

  I have forwarded this email answer to Check24 (which will then forward it to Auto Europe), and hoping that this will finally solve the Polizeibericht issue. Fingerscrossed.

In my case it's a rental car. The online company Auto Europe is not willing to reimburse any cost related to obtaining the police report. I have emailed Buchbinder Damange Claim department (in Regensburg) since it was their car, let's see if they can help me. Otherwise, I will be left with only one option and that is to ask a lawyer to obtain the police report for me. It will cost me around a 100€ I think, which sadly I have to pay from my pocket. 

The place of accident was Munich, and I live in Frankfurt. I do not want to go all the way to Munich.

I have called them multiple times, and received only one answer. "We do not give police report and Aktenzeichen should be sufficient" (Roughly translated). What they (Police department) told me was that the car insurance company can use the Akenzeichen to perform the Akteneinsicht or a lawyer can request a Police report.

Then the next question would be any ideas why police would not like to give me that report? I mean who else is the rightful owner of this report? Why do I have to ask the lawyer to extract the police report and pay him for that? And the biggest concern of course who will reimburse the costs of the lawyer?

After so many more weeks this is the reply I got from Check24 today   Check24 says:     Now if I go to the lawyer to obtain the so called Police report (if there is one) who will pay the lawyer fee? I do not have the lawyers insurance, and they usually charge couple of hundred euros to even consult you. My entire insurance claim is around 500€, so does it make sense to go to the lawyer?   Any help would be highly appreciated. 

Recently I had a minor car accident on rental car booked online from Check24 portal. Buchbinder was the actual rental company whereas Auto Europe was the online company. After returning the car Buchbinder has already deducted the damages cost from my credit card. I have applied for claim (Reklamation) as it was a Full-Insurance (Vollkasko ohne Selbstbeteiligung). The problem is that Auto Europe need a Police Report (Polizeibericht) to process my claim. All I have is the Police file number (Polizei Aktenzeichen) and not the report it self. I tried calling the Police office and they say that "Aktenzeichen" is all they can give out. I then called Buchbinder (as it's their car) and they also don't have it. Help desk person at Check24 say that I can either get it from Buchbinder or ask a lawyer to get it for me. It doesn't make sense to ask lawyer for it as it will cost me extra 100-200€ which no one will refund. Does anyone has an idea how to solve this problem? Any help would be great. Thanks.

So you mean that I am actually paying less tax than I supposed to?

I have recently noticed that I might be paying less tax than I should. I am a regular full-time employee and receives a fix monthly income after the income taxes are payed. However, when I see the salary slip and look at the Grundtabelle the tax I'm paying is always less than what Grundtablle says. I have also tried using an online tax calculator (Online Steuer Rechner) and it also shows the same numbers as my salary slip does. My question is why is it so, am I missing something? Attached below is a screenshot of my comparison of a tax payable on a sample salary, online calculator vs Grundtabelle. Any help clarifying my confusion would be great.

I have recently came across this article on internet https://frankfurt-expat.com/2017/11/20/streaming-movies-becomes-illegal-in-germany/ which states that free online streaming of movies or other paid content is not officially illegal and before it was a "grey area". Is this actually true? If so how is it even possible? I mean I often watch my favorite series on websites which also host free content, so how are authorities going to know that when I visited that site I actually viewed paid content for free or just free content. The videos hosted there have external links and the URL often doesn't give away the name of the content in it. So the latest episode of Game of Thrones might me hosted on something like www[dot]oload[dot]co/asdfgRS52f.  

I've joined this new company last year June. Since then I've the same salary. Is it normal in Germany? It's a small company of under 20 employees. My other friends in other companies got a standard 2-4% increase already. Shall I wait a bit more and see if my boss does this automatically or shall I ask explicitly for a raise? Does asking for a raise in any term risks my job?