Sumarokov-Elston

I am bumping up this thread, as I have been asked to provide a Certificate of fiscal residence (i.e. Ansässigkeitsbescheinigung) by a foreign institution before they can pay me for doing freelance work for them. This is because they are very strict/afraid of their own tax people.   I have done this before with HMRC and it does not seem complicated in Germany.   The thing is this. The foreign institution want to pay me in the forthcoming months, for work I have already done, but ask that I provide them with a certificate already covering that period, i.e. in advance.   I am not sure if the German tax authorities will do this? I have just moved (end of last year), have the tax number and all, but I will in theory (in my mind) only become a tax resident once I reach the middle of this year. For example, how do the tax people here know that I will not leave before then and so not be a tax resident (I do not even know myself).   I am asking in case anyone has experience of this and knows if I can get this. I see that the German version is slightly different from the UK certificate - it does not list any dates, it just seems to say "in Deutschland ansässig ist/is resident in Germany"...   I can provide further information if I have not been terribly clear. Thanks.  

Thanks, I have been looking into these routers and they do seem to be the way to go. Some friends recommended Congstar.

I am resurrecting this thread as I will probably be living in a place soon where I will require buying a surf stick for my internet.   I am looking for a way to access internet via my laptop and I reckon a PAYG surf stick is the best option.   I do not know my exact address yet, so cannot check yet about the availability, but it should be able to access the main providers (centre of small provincial town).   I was thinking of going with the Congstar prepaid internet stick after doing my own research. Does anyone here have any better recommendations or warnings against this company? I do a lot of web browsing, but very little streaming and prefer simplicity and functionality over anything else.    

For UK nationals: cut-off date 30 June 2021 If you are a UK national living in Germany on 31 December 2020 and continuing to live in Germany after that date, you must report your residence to the foreigners authority responsible for your place of residence by 30 June 2021 in order to be able to obtain the new residence document. Many authorities enable this to be done online. You do not need to make an application. Registration with the residents’ registration office is not sufficient! We recommend that you do not wait until the last minute to report your residence.   https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/faqs/EN/topics/constitution/brexit/faqs-brexit.html  

Can anyone think of ways that changing address to another Land right now might really complicate things?   I have not been contacted at all. I am currently living in Niedersachsen, but will need to move around a month or so from now.   I have an option of a place just over the border in NRW or possibly in Hesse.   At a push, I could find accommodation in Niedersachsen; this would be less desirable, but I might be swayed if it avoids a holy mess.   [Associated question: what are the main hassles from moving to another Land in terms of bureaucracy? I cannot think of anything major but maybe there are some things I don't know about? Insurance and tax registration would seem to make no difference...]   Thanks for any insights anyone can give.

Hope I'm not hijacking this thread, do not want to stray from the topic. But I notice that to travel currently to the UK, you need to have a negative coronavirus test written in English, Spanish or French. Not German... interesting, can you get a print-out of your results here in English? Translations are not allowed, it has to be the correct language in the original...

  I joined when I briefly lived in Berlin in the winter of 2008/09, was there again in 2014. I then returned to Germany at the end of last year. Since then, I have lived in other countries, been speaking in completely different languages and living in different systems. When you move around a lot, as you maybe know, you latch onto that system and learn it all, to the detriment of others, where you do not live. I just ended up in Germany by chance.   Of course, one must pay a fee for good advice. All good work should be paid well (especially when it has qualifications and training and knowledge behind it!).   I see that independent advisors post here, but only see those with more of an all-round, catch-all approach, who might not go in for specific, "one-off" advice. Might not be worth their time, which I understand.   To be honest, I was asking more: what Germans do in my position, are there such services offered here?

I am rather a newbie in Germany, but I have lived in a lot of other European countries and know that all do things a bit differently.   I am looking for financial advice on very simple matters, not tons of investment, insurance, etc., but on stuff like selling out of a single investment held in the UK, depositing the money here, consequences for tax, what documents I need for KYC/AML, all that sort of thing.   Yes, I have made an appointment at the bank about all the documentation and have been asking around about CGT and all that sort of thing. But I want to be doubly sure I am not missing anything, especially something that might just never cross my mind, because it is unique to Germany. Plus an independent adviser might know better than me where to better stash the cash (although I like to keep things plain and simple).   Are there such advisers out there who can provide what I would call case-by-case assistance?  

I have a similar question to "aguy" in the previous page.   I happened to buy Bitcoin back in 2013 by sending fiat to an exchange (Kraken) and then transferring the crypto into my wallet.   Since then, I have done nothing with it as I am not interested in trading. However, it has since been suggested that I would not pay any tax while I am a tax resident in Germany if I converted it back to fiat (EUR) now.   Quick check: the fact that I bought it when I was NOT a tax resident of Germany (2013) does not alter this?   [I can prove that I funded the money to the Kraken exchange, as they provide a way to "export your transaction history", although it is a rather feeble and, to my mind, dubious-looking excel file that provides no real detail at all, i.e. it looks like something a child could print out at home.]   Second part of question. I am not actually interested in selling my crypto for fiat, but I have been looking into depositing it with Bitwala, who offer interest and, also good, a non-custodial wallet.   I get completely that I should pay tax on interest and I believe that Bitwala offers a service which calculates all you need for submitting any tax return.   All that is fine. But what if you withdraw a bit of cash through an ATM using their debit card (after selling crypto for fiat)? Would you need to specially provide all the information to the tax authorities so they do not come chasing after you, because otherwise who is to say that you really have owned this crypto for more than a year? Also... what if you have both? Crypto since 2013 and some you bought last week. If you withdraw cash today, how do you decided FROM WHICH crypto you have cashed out, i.e. taxable or not taxable?  

Many thanks for pointing this out. This seems to be what has happened, so will wait and see if the letter comes.   The particular confusing bit was the message appearing in the mobileTAN section about photoTAN, when I had not ventured into that area at all.   Kind thanks.

I wonder if any Commerzbank customers can help me out with this.   I have recently set up an account with them and transferred money to my account. I want to use online banking.   I do not have a Smartphone, but thought I could still use online banking by paying 12 cents for an SMS message.   But the problem is setting up the system. When I go for mobileTAN verwalten, I receive the test message to my Nokia phone.   However, when I tick the box to say that I have received the message, I get this message:   "TAN-Verfahren nicht verfügbar. Das photoTAN-Verfahren ist nicht nutzbar, da die Aktivierung noch nicht abgeschlossen ist. Bitte rufen Sie die TAN-Verwaltung auf und aktivieren Sie die photoTAN mit dem Aktivierungsbrief, der kürzlich an Sie versendet wurde."   But I have not gone for photo-TAN. I am beginning to think it may even be a browser or technical problem (I use Chrome). The reason, as I say, for going for mobile-TAN is because I cannot use photo-TAN.   Or have I maybe not understood something with the process? I have accounts in two other European countries and all use completely different systems.   [I know I can buy a reader, which costs 30 euros, but would rather not (it has to be specially ordered anyway).]   Any Commerzbank customers out there?