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Hi All,   this year I will put in my tax return also the expenses related to my relocation. I changed city (inside Germany) because I changed my job. During the relocation I rented a van. I will put the renting cost in the relocation expenses. But...I had a little accident during the usage of this van. Long story short, I had to pay on top about 800 euro of damages (rest was covered by the casco insurance). Do you think can I put in my tax return form this 800 euro in the total expenses for relocation ?  I personally don't think, but I ask here just in case

Hey everyone,   I have moved in 2018 to Germany as an expat and the first 8 months(January-August) I was working in Germany, paying taxes in Germany but my contract was Swiss and was receiving money from Switzerland. The remaining of the year (September until now) I had a german contract. Now I have heard that I might be able to get 90 days of meals as tax return (Verpflegungsmehraufwand) because I moved countries and had international contract but am not sure if it applies in my case or not.   Anyone had the same situation or knows of this?   

At the moment it is not 100% clear whether it is mandatory for me to fill a tax return in my situation. Apologies if the topic was raised before. My initial calculations both with ElsterFormular and SteuerGo for year 2018 show that, with my employee income, I need to pay ~30€. I included some of the typical cost deductions but they seem to be lower than the the 1000€ flat-rate so there was no improvement there. It is my intention now to try to avoid filling the tax return to avoid paying those 30€.    1) My work income is limited to one employer so, in principle, it should be possible for me to avoid filling the tax return. Is that correct? Even if the calculation says that I need to pay? 2) I have made some cryptocurrencies investment transactions, but the gains are in the order of tenths of €, far from the 600€ exemption for private sales. 3) I have an account abroad that has also given me some money, but also in the order of 10€ or so, far from the 800€ exemption for capital gains. 4) I have some investment funds and retirement funds abroad (Spain) that I opened before moving to Germany. I have made no movements on those for at least 2 years now. However, the tax law in Spain is much simpler. You only pay taxes when you sell your shares. No taxes on dividends if they are reinvested. Actually, you don't pay taxes when you swap funds (Fund -> Fund transaction is possible without going through FIAT). You only pay taxes when you convert shares into FIAT, so I have no report with details regarding those possible dividend gains. In any case, any possible dividend gains from those funds will be muuuuuch below 800€.    - About 1) 2) and 3). Can I avoid doing the tax return at all? Or is it better to fill it so the small crypto movements are at least "acknowledged" by the Finanzamt?  - About 4) Should I contact the fund managers in order to get the dividend gain information? (If they can provide that at all). What are the options if I don't have such information?   Thank you very much to everyone!

Hi guys,   wonder if anyone can help me.   I am currently preparing my tax return for 2018 and received some money last year from a company I worked for that went insolvent/got taken over by another company back in 2009.   So I have tried entering this money and tax taken off, Solidarity payment etc. in Wiso as a second employer according to the info on the Elektronischen Lohnsteuerbescheinigung they sent to me at the time but it keeps giving me an error. Basically for points 22, 25, 26 and 27 on that entry it appears red as the values are 0 (as also on the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung).   Do I need to do anything specific or just ignore that? It gives me the option to ignore but I'm not sure.   Thanks

Hello,       I am now preparing my tax return from 2018 and have some questions regarding foreign capital gains. I am from Brazil, living in Germany since 2016. I still have some investments (time deposits) in my home country and had in the last year some incomes. In my home country, I already paid the taxes, however I cannot see them in the bank pay slip.    I´ve already read some questions and answers related to this topic here in this forum, but I would like to confirm some details, before I submit my tax return:       1. I know that Brazil and Germany haven´t an agreement to avoid double taxation, since this was cancelled in 2005. That means: even if I knew how much taxes I already paid in my home country, I wouldn´t be able to make any kind of compensation in my German tax return. Is that correct?       2. Assuming that this compensation cannot be done and supposing that I had a total income of EUR 5.000, the taxes in Germany would be calculated in the following way:   2.1. EUR 5.000 – 1.600 EUR (I am married, so I understood that the first EUR 1.600 are free of taxes) = EUR 3.400   2.2. EUR 3.400 x 26.375% (= 25% Abgeltungsteuer + 5.5%*25% Solidaritätszuschlag) = EUR 896,75 è This would be the tax amount that I have to pay in Germany. Is this calculation correct?       3. I need to make the currency conversion between BRL and EUR. Is there an official exchange rate that shall be used? If not, can I simply use the average value from 2018? Where can I indicate which exchange rate was applied?       4. Which document shall I submit together with the tax return? Is it enough to send the translated bank pay slip?       5. I understood that this information has to be included in the form KAP. Is that correct?       Thanks in advance!  

Hello, I have been working full-time in Germany since January 2015. I have never applied for a tax refund and want to do it this month. - Could anyone please outline the procedure for tax refund application? - How can I maximize the refund amount? - Is there any deadline to submit the tax refund application? Regards, Su

Hi Everyone, I've been reading a lot of entries here and they are super helpful for me. Currently I have a problem with company that I couldn't find solution online. I would be grateful if you could give me some advise. I moved to Germany last year and currently attending Integration course everyday. And three weeks ago I started working 3 hrs/day at a small company in Frankfurt, helping in their workshop. I planned to work there as a part-timer everyday after class until end of April. Then my course will finish and I can start looking for a proper full time job. I was told that I can come to work whenever I'm free because they always need people. And they said everyone works as a freelancer there (later I found out that's not true) and expect me to do so. I was ok with the idea even knowing I have to go through a lot of paperwork. Because the flexibility of the work allows me to go to class in the morning is attractive so I said I can do the freelancer thing for them. But then after I started working, there were days I was told I didn't need come because they have enough people or they have meetings etc. So I only worked 3 days last week even I wished to work for 5 days. Since then I have changed my mind about the freelancer thing because I won't be earning enough to pay a tax advisor or actually worth my effort to go through all the paperwork. I explained my concern and told them I want to stop working and wish them to pay me the 27 hours of work (270 eur). They said they can't pay me unless I send them an invoice. What should I do now? Should I register as a freelancer to get the tax number and de-register immediately after? I'm worried about the amount of paper work I have to ideal with end of the year for tax return. Many thanks in advance.

Hi all,   I have the following question regarding tax return in Germany, here is the situation:     **Arriving to Germany for the first time for my mandatory internship (master thesis) + "Anmeldung" :  -Date: from 01.03.2017 to 25.08.017 -Title: Trainee -Salary: 1500 euro/ 40 h per week **Doing "Abmeldung", leaving Germany and Going back to Universtiy. Date: From 26.08.2017 to 03.12.017 **Arriving again to Germany + "Anmeldung"  -Date: from 04.12.2017  -Title: Full time employee -Salary: 3000 euro / 40 h per week     The problem is that my "lohnsteuerbescheinigung" includes only the period from 04.12.2017 till 31.12.2017, is this normal? how about the period from 01.03.2017 to 25.08.2017 ? did they forgot about it ? or they didn't include it because I left Germany in that period and did "Abmeldung"? or maybe is it a mistake from my employer?   What are my options in case I decided to go for the tax return: 1. mention only the period stated in the lohnsteuerbescheinigung (04.12.2017 to 31.12.2017) 2. mention both periods (01.03.2017 to 25.08.2017) and (04.12.2017 to 31.12.2017)   And theoretically speaking, which options will have more tax return ? and should I contact my employer to correct the "lohnsteuerbescheinigung" ? Thank you in advance

I worked for the university medical center as a postdoctoral researcher. My whole team is likely to be integrated into a newly formed independent research institute while remaining a link to the uniklinik -- therefore, if the research institute became a reality my contract will be splitted into two, a larger part of my salary will be from Leibiniz and the smaller part will be from the uniklinik.   I'm reading the possible scenerio about tax class, and it's quite clear to me that I will have to get a class 3 (I'm married) for my larger part of income and class 6 for the smaller part. Compare to my current salary (it will remain the same after the split) more tax will likely be deducted from my brutto each month. My question is, am I correct to assume that once I submit a tax return claim I'll get back the difference of tax (irrespective of other tax deduction claims) comparing to the amount of tax I'm paying right now?      

In 2017 I decided to do the responsible adult thing and hire a tax professional to help me with my US and German tax returns. I was hoping I'd get more back than I spent hiring them, and I'd have less stress making sure everything was correct. I found an American CPA living in Germany who said he did German any US taxes and hired him to take a look at mine.   Well it's now almost December and my taxes are fucked. For the longest time I was expecting a 2017 US tax return of nearly $5000. (Taxes paid on stocks from my company when they vested, I never sold anything) Well the IRS flagged my account after my accountant submitted my return and they claimed I never paid any US taxes. I've called the IRS over 6 times throughout the year as they kept messing up my German mailing address and sending notices to an address I haven't lived at in 8 years...    Anyways, it turns out that the $5000 I automatically paid in taxes upon vesting events was paid to the German government, NOT the US government. So now my US return for 2017 is wrong, I look like I've been trying to defraud the US of $5k, and my German taxes are off by 5k! It clearly states on every single German paycheck I have "taxable shares" and an amount, so I have no idea how my tax accountant missed that. Additionally, he says I'm being taxed in the same bracket as someone making >250,000 euros/yr when I make around 60...   I've emailed my CPA over 50 times throughout this process asking for updates, but sometimes I have to email him 3-4 times in a row before he'll respond, often days or weeks between replies. I very much have the feeling that if I just stopped pestering him, that he'd just let me fade off and forget. I'm really pissed off now and sometimes just lie in bed at night thinking about the mess.   I don't know what to do, it's now almost December and this whole thing has been a nightmare. I already paid him a total of 750 euros for my 2014, 2015, and 2016 returns which I don't know now if they're also correct. I would feel better if he was responsive and kept me updated on what he's doing to fix this, but he just doesn't respond, sometimes for weeks at a time!