Filing a tax return - help on how to file

[Enthiran 19]

A dummy question again - and extremely sorry that I couldnt find this in the WIKI of ELSETER or in the search of TT. Does ELSTER calculate the amount that I can expect to get as a return back to me once I have filled in all the forms? Or is it done by Finanzamt and then only I would know the expected return amount?

[PandaMunich 16,915]

 

1. 
   
   
2. No.
   
3. Yes.
   

[Enthiran 19]

Thanks a lot for a lightning fast reply PandaMunich. Is there a site or software (even if its paid) which can calculate this returns amount for me? Basically what I am looking for is should I submit these returns (as Its optional for employed ones) as there is considerable amount that I can get as returns. I dont want to spend 100s of Euros to a tax consultant and end up to find out that I dont have any returns. When I was in the US, there was a site called Turbotax which would get all the information, calculate and show me how much I could expect to get in returns and also helps in filing the forms. I am looking to see if anything similar is available here.

[PandaMunich 16,915]

All of the commercial tax software packages have that feature, e.g. Taxman.

 

Though once you have reached the point where Taxman can tell you how much you'll get back, you will have finished inputting all the data for your tax return, and won't need a tax advisor.

[Enthiran 19]

Thanks a lot again PandaMunich! that was really helpful. I am also thanking you for all the posts you have done so far for tax filing as well as a very friendly DIY for ELSTER. I have gone through them and got a very good idea on the tax filing process. Commendable help given at free of cost just for the sake of "lost in Germany" expats. Hats off!

 

I also want to mention that Only TT can give such a detailed information on most common Germany related information for new comers (who dont know German and know only English). A royal salute to TT and all the contributors.

[Guest]

Could I claim 'illness costs' for an English Psychologist?

 

I have a prescription from my doctor for an English psychologist, but after weeks of searching for a public English-speaking therapist I opted for a private praxis. Could I get a tax break by entering somewhere in Elster all the costs incurred for my treatment?

 

Thanks for the advice!

Vanessa

[PandaMunich 16,915]

Only as an "außergewöhnliche Belastung", i.e. depending on your marital status, number of kids and gross yearly income, the first x€ of your shrink costs wouldn't count as a deduction in your tax return.

For details please see posts 11 and 12 in Tax deductions for pension and health insurance.

[hedgehog2 15]

I started looking into last year's Steuererklaerung.

Last year I did it with the Lohnsteuerhilfeverein, but this year I though I can save some money and do it myself.

I also have my first questions regarding filling in the Mantelbogen, ESt 1V:

 

- line 27: Angaben ueber Zeiten und Gruende der Nichtbeschaeftigung

My wife stopped working in September, 6 weeks before the due date of our kid. I assume I should mention this here.

But it doesn't say if the line is for the Steuerpflichtige Person or for the Ehefrau; I assume they will figure it out.

So if I put something like: "Mutterschaft ab dd.MM.yyyy" would that suffice here? Should I also specify the person's name?

- lines 31-34, 35-38: Werbungskosten

Can I simply put nothing here at all? Both me and my wife spend less than 1000 EUR a year for travel costs,

so I guess we are fine with the Pauschale already factored in by the employer when withholding tax.

Figuring out the number of holidays and sick leaves we had last year seems a pain in the backside so if I can get around that

without consequences, I would.

[PandaMunich 16,915]

 

- line 27: Angaben ueber Zeiten und Gruende der Nichtbeschaeftigung

My wife stopped working in September, 6 weeks before the due date of our kid. I assume I should mention this here.

But it doesn't say if the line is for the Steuerpflichtige Person or for the Ehefrau; I assume they will figure it out.

So if I put something like: "Mutterschaft ab dd.MM.yyyy" would that suffice here? Should I also specify the person's name?

 

Just to be safe, also put in your wife's name.

 

 

- lines 31-34, 35-38: Werbungskosten

Can I simply put nothing here at all? Both me and my wife spend less than 1000 EUR a year for travel costs,

so I guess we are fine with the Pauschale already factored in by the employer when withholding tax.

Figuring out the number of holidays and sick leaves we had last year seems a pain in the backside so if I can get around that

without consequences, I would.

 

Yes, leaving it empty is perfectly alright.

[hedgehog2 15]

Thank you!

 

I'm slowly making progress, so a couple of additional ones:

- Anlage Kind: the kindergarden costs are broken down in 2: meals + Betreuung. Can I deduct both? Or only Betreuung without the meals?

- Anlage Kind: I have a child born in 2013, towards the end, so we started getting the corresponding Kindergeld only in 2014. What do I put in in the corresponding Anspruch box? I picked 0, figuring for 2014 it will be a bigger number. Is it correct?

- Anlage Kind: lines 11-14 refer to someone else (who?), neither the father nor the mother, who are filling jointly the current tax declaration. Is it correct?

- can I deduct the Lohnsteuerhilfeverein membership costs for 2013? If so, where do I put them in?

[PandaMunich 16,915]

 

- Anlage Kind: the kindergarden costs are broken down in 2: meals + Betreuung. Can I deduct both? Or only Betreuung without the meals?

 

Only the Betreuung.

 

 

- Anlage Kind: I have a child born in 2013, towards the end, so we started getting the corresponding Kindergeld only in 2014. What do I put in in the corresponding Anspruch box? I picked 0, figuring for 2014 it will be a bigger number. Is it correct?

 

No, Anspruch means claim.

You had a claim from the moment your child was born, so if, for example, your child was born in November 2013, put in 2*184€ = 368€.

 

For 2014 you will have the standard claim, 12 months à 184€ --> 2208€

 

 

- Anlage Kind: lines 11-14 refer to someone else (who?), neither the father nor the mother, who are filling jointly the current tax declaration. Is it correct?

 

That's for divorcees.

 

 

- can I deduct the Lohnsteuerhilfeverein membership costs for 2013? If so, where do I put them in?

 

Officially, tax advice is only tax deductible for the parts of the tax return that involved calculating a profit.

So, if you just had income as an employee, you wouldn't normally be eligible, but just stick it as Steuerberatung into your Anlage N, somewhere between lines 46 and 48, and hope for the best, maybe they will just wave it through.

[hedgehog2 15]

 

No, Anspruch means claim.

You had a claim from the moment your child was born, so if, for example, your child was born in November 2013, put in 2*184€ = 368€.

 

For 2014 you will have the standard claim, 12 months à 184€ --> 2208€

 

Interesting, I'm was pretty sure we got it only for the full months of 2013, i.e. in your November example, we only got 184.

But I will double check, maybe the claim applies only for full calendar months?

[PandaMunich 16,915]

Nope, even if the child was born on 30. November, you would still get the full 184€ for November, please see here.

[paul_mannheim 9]

Hats off to PandaMunich for the sterling work with helping people through the German Tax system. This year I have to navigate it myself for the 1st time for 2012 and 2013 to follow. With the help of the excellent WIKI I am nearly there but having issues with Anlage AUS and Aanlage KAP

 

Like many expats I have building society interest with tax withheld at 20%, tax free interest dividends from shares with tax held at 10% and some tax free dividends in Germany because I told them my Dividend income would be less that 1602 and I am a permanently resident married class III person.

 

So for all those needing help I have trawled this post and found the following post to be of interest 133, 145, 388. 444, 515, 518, 758, 910, 980, 1039, 1049, 1050, 1143. The ones in bold I thought particularly useful.

 

So now from all that hopefully this is right any comments would be much appreciated

 

Anlage KAP (2012)

Line 1 Name X in Zur Einkommensteuererkarung

Line 2 Forename

Line 3 Tax Number X in stpfl Person Ehemann if it's your form or X in Ehefrau if it’s your wife's.

Line 4 = 1

Line 5 = 1

Line 6 blank unless you pay church tax

Line 7 Amount of German Income (I presume you use the left hand column)

Line 14 Amount of your 1602 euro allowance you have used up

 

Line 17 Foreign Income Can you combine Building society interest here and dividend income?

Line 39 Is this where you put dividends from shares?

Line 53 Total of all UK taxation (I presume you use the left hand column)

 

Anlage AUS (2012)

Line 1 Name

Line 2 Forename

Line 3 Tax Number X in stpfl Person Ehemann if it’s your form or X in Ehefrau if it’s your wife’s.

Line 4 Großbritannien

Line 5 Zinsin Dividendin There are three columns do I have to use one for interest and one for dividend income or can I combine them?

Line 6 Anlage KAP Zeile 15 and Anlage KAP Zeile 39?

Line 7 Gross amount of income again does dividend income have to be separate from interest?

Line 10 UK tax paid again does interest and dividend income have to be separate

 

Do I have to put the total amount of both German and UK Income on the Mantebogen EST 1A any where? I saw it mentioned in an older post but do not see it anywhere on the 2012 form.

 

Do I have to use the GBP euro exchange rate for the day each payment was made or can I add it all up an use an annual rate. The link to the rates published on the other posts no longer works any idea where the info is now I cpouldn’t find it on the German Finanz Web pages.

 

Do I have to send every tax voucher and interest statement or can I just list them on a spreadsheet. If I have to send the actual items will I get them back as the UK tax authorities also are interesed in them.

 

FYI Ernst & Young did my tax return for the 1st 2 years paid for as a relocation expense. I provided all the informaton regarding interest and dividends to them as well. But all thez said was its less than 1602 so no issue. I called and asked where the Anlage KAP and AUS were and they said “the instructions for the forms that say you had to declare it were written for ordinary people” as they do tax professionally they could make the judgement that there would be no tax liability so they did not need to complete them for me, a bit shady I thought and possibly wrong.

[welkin 0]

Dear PandaMunich,

 

To begin with, thank you so much for this thread. I daresay it is one of the most useful threads on this forum addressed by you with such precision and clarity (backed up by references too!)

 

I calculated my numbers for the miscellaneous moving costs part of the Umzugspauschale for FY2013 based on your post #379, but was thrown off a little by your post #1159 which seemed to indicate a lower number. I wonder if you could check my calculation below:

 

I moved with my wife from USA to Germany in May 2013. My calculation:

 

1,374€ since I'm married (from http://translate.google.de/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.vlh.de/arbeiten-pendeln/beruf/umzugspauschale-wird-auf-fast-1400-euro-erhoeht.html&prev=/search?q%3Dumzugspauschale%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dopera%26hs%3D2pa%26channel%3Dsuggest )

 

+ 1,520€ (= 2 x 760€) since we as a married couple moved from outside the EU

___________

= 2,894 €

+ 1,447 € i.e. 50% of 2,894 € on top since our last move before that one was less than 5 years ago

+ 485.61 € i.e. 13% of 3,735.48 € (2013 Stufe 1, A13 from page 2 of http://www.dbb.de/fileadmin/pdfs/einkommenstabellen/besoldungstab_bund_130101_ueberleitung.pdf ) on top since USA and Germany have different electrical outlet voltages and frequencies

___________

= 4,826.61€ final figure.

 

Is that correct?

 

Also one thing I noticed that I would like to point out for people using your ELSTER wiki: although the detailed instructions are tailored for FY2012 forms, by comparing the FY2012 and FY2013 forms once can fill out the FY2013 form equally well (as far as I can see) using the same instructions (albeit with different corresponding line numbers).

[PandaMunich 16,915]

Here are the instructions for declaring capital income.

 

Anlage KAP (2012)

 

Line 1 Name X in Zur Einkommensteuererkarung

Line 2 Forename

Line 3 Tax Number X in stpfl Person Ehemann if it's your form, or you are a single female or X in Ehefrau if it's your wife's.

Line 4 = 1

Line 5 = 1

Line 6 blank unless you pay church tax

 

Capital income that was taxed at the source in Germany with 25% Abgeltungsteuer (+ Soli 5,5% on these 25%):

Line 7 Amount of German capital income, including interest, dividends, profit from selling stocks/shares, trading futures, selling an option, and so on

Line 8 contained in amount of line 7: profit made from selling stocks/shares (= Aktien) or trading futures

Line 9 contained in amount of line 8: Profit you made from selling stocks/shares (= Aktien)

Line 10 contained in amount of line 7: the money you got for selling an option (i.e. short call or short put), in German: Stillhalterprämien

Line 11: only applies if you can't prove what you initially paid for a stock/share, they then tax you on 30% of the selling price instead of on the profit you made

line 12: remaining (after adding up your losses with your profits!) loss from capital income, without the loss from selling shares/stocks

line 13: remaining loss from selling shares/stocks

 

Line 14 Amount of your 801€ (1,602€ savers' allowance if you're married) that you have used up

 

Capital income that was not taxed at the source in Germany with 25% Abgeltungsteuer (+ Soli 5,5% on these 25%):

Line 16 German capital income that for whatever reason was not taxed at the source (except the amount from line 23)

Line 17 Sum of all your non-German capital income

Line 18 contained in amounts of lines 16 and 17: profit made from selling stocks/shares (= Aktien) or trading futures

Line 19 contained in amount of line 18: Profit you made from selling stocks/shares (= Aktien)

Line 20 contained in amounts of lines 16 and 17: the loss you applied to to reach the resulting amounts in line 16 and 17, without the loss from selling shares/stocks

Line 21 contained in amounts of lines 16 and 17: the loss from selling shares/stocks

Line 22 contained in amounts of lines 16 and 17: the money you got for selling an option (i.e. short call or short put), in German: Stillhalterprämien

Line 23 interest you received from the Finanzamt because they were late with a tax reimbursement

 

Capital income that will not be taxed at 25% Abgeltungsteuer (= normal flat tax rate), but at your personal income tax rate:

Concerns the following capital income:

 

• if you hold a share in a company and get a share of the profit in return (stiller Gesellschafter)
  
• if you gave a company a loan whose interest/repayment depends on that company's profit (partiarisches Darlehen)
  
• If you gave a near relative a loan, and that relative deducted the interest on that loan as a business expense in their tax return, then you will have to tax the interest you get on that loan with your personal tax rate and not the normal flat tax rate of 25% (§32d Abs. 2 Nr. 1a EStG).
  
• If you gave a loan to a corporation (e.g. GmbH, AG, Ltd., ...) in which you or a near relative own at least 10% of the shares, then you will have to tax the interest you get on that loan with your personal tax rate and not the normal flat tax rate of 25% (§32d Abs. 2 Nr. 1b and 1c EStG).
  
• If you received dividends (= shares of a company's profits), and you work for that company and own at least 1% of its shares (§32d Abs. 2 Nr. 3a EStG), or you don't work for them but own at least 25% of its shares (§32d Abs. 2 Nr. 3b EStG):
  Or if you sell your shares and had owned at least 1% of its shares (§17 Abs. 1 EStG) then you can opt in this section to not pay the standard flat tax of 25% on that income, but instead your personal tax rate.
  To make this calculation a bit trickier, this income the underlies something called the Teileinkünfteverfahren (§3 Nr. 40 EStG), which basically means that only 60% of it is taxable. So only opt for this if your personal tax rate on the your total income if you include this income is smaller than 41.67% (0.6x < 25% --> x < 41.67%), otherwise the standard flat tax of 25% is more advantageous to you.
  The savers' allowance (Sparerfreibatrag) of 801€/1,602€ will not apply then, but in exchange you are allowed to reduce that income by the associated costs, i.e. bank transfer costs, postage and so on. Don't forget to a piece of paper with a table explaining how you reached the resulting profit, i.e. dividend income minus associated costs, or selling price minus purchase price minus associated costs.
  This choice will remain valid for 5 years in total, unless you write them a letter telling that you no longer opt for this together with one of your future tax returns. So should you have a higher income next year and your personal tax rate therefore rise above limit where it makes sense to opt for this, don't forget to write that letter to get rid of this option again!
  

Any Kapitalertragsteuer, Solidaritätszuschlag or church tax that was already deducted for this income will have to be declared in lines 56 to 58.

Any non-German tax you already paid on this income should not be declared in lines 53 and 54, but in Anlage AUS.

 

Line 25: yearly interest from such loans or yearly dividends

Line 26: one-off profit from selling on such loans or shares

Line 27: put in a "1" if you opt to tax these dividends/share sale profits at your personal tax rate

Line 28: if you put a 1 in line 27, now tell them: name of that company, that company's Finanzamt, that company's tax number / income for which you opt for taxation with your personal tax rate

 

************************************

 

Page 2 of Anlage KAP (2012)

 

If you held a stake, for example, in a group of heirs (= Erbengemeinschaft) and the Finanzamt will have issued you a Feststellungsbescheid telling how much of that group's capital income was allocated to you:

 

This profit from either yearly dividends or one-off income if you sell shares will also be taxed according to the Teileinkünfteverfahren (§3 Nr. 40 EStG), i.e. only 60% of the capital profit are taxable.

 

Line 31 stake in company 1: name of that group 1, that group1's Finanzamt, that group 1's tax number / stake in group 2: name of that group 2, that group 2's Finanzamt, that group 2's tax number

 

Capital income from that stake that has already been taxed in Germany:

Line 32 total capital income from that/those stake(s)

Line 33 contained in amount of line 32: profit made from selling stocks/shares (= Aktien) or trading futures

Line 34 contained in amount of line 33: Profit you made from selling stocks/shares (= Aktien)

Line 35 contained in amount of line 32: the money you got for selling an option (i.e. short call or short put), in German: Stillhalterprämien

Line 36: only applies if you can't prove what you initially paid for a stock/share, they then tax you on 30% of the selling price instead of on the profit you made

line 37: remaining (after adding up your losses with your profits!) loss from capital income, without the loss from selling shares/stocks

line 38: remaining loss from selling shares/stocks

 

Capital income from the stake that was not taxed at the source in Germany:

Line 39 German capital income that for whatever reason was not taxed at the source, except for the amount in line 45

Line 40 contained in amount of line 39: profit made from selling stocks/shares (= Aktien) or trading futures

Line 41 contained in amount of line 40: profit you made from selling stocks/shares (= Aktien)

Line 42 contained in amounts of line 39: the loss you applied to to reach the resulting amount in line 39, without the loss from selling shares/stocks

Line 43 contained in amounts of line 39: the loss from selling shares/stocks

Line 44 contained in amounts of line 39: the money you got for selling an option (i.e. short call or short put), in German: Stillhalterprämien

 

Tax you already prepaid for the sections line 7 to 22 (fill into left column) and line 31 to 46 (fill into right column):

Line 50 Fill in amount of Kapitalertragsteuer (= 25% Abgeltungsteuer) from the Steuerbescheinigung that your German bank(s) issued you (if they haven't issued you one, ask them to do it, it will be free of cost)

Line 51 Fill in amount of Solidaritätszuschlag (= 5.5% of Kapitalertragsteuer) from the Steuerbescheinigung that your German bank(s) issued you

Line 52 Fill in amount of church tax (= around 9% of Kapitalertragsteuer) from the Steuerbescheinigung that your German bank(s) issued you

Line 53 Fill in if you hold foreign shares in a German bank. In that case the foreign tax, for example on dividends, will have already been used by that German bank to reduce the Kapitalertragsteuer you owe (take the entry from the Steuerbescheinigung)

Line 54 Fill in foreign tax from investmenst held in non-German banks, i.e foreign tax that hasn't yet been considered. Also look into the Steuerbescheinigung from your German bank, there may also be something for this line in there.

Line 55: Fill in amount of "fiktive Quellensteuer" from the Steuerbescheinigung that your German bank(s) issued you

 

Tax you already prepaid for the section line 25 to 28:

Line 56 Fill in amount of Kapitalertragsteuer (= 25% Abgeltungsteuer) from the Steuerbescheinigung that your German bank(s) issued you (if they haven't issued you one, ask them to do it, it will be free of cost)

Line 57 Fill in amount of Solidaritätszuschlag (= 5.5% of Kapitalertragsteuer) from the Steuerbescheinigung that your German bank(s) issued you

Line 58 Fill in amount of church tax (= around 9% of Kapitalertragsteuer) from the Steuerbescheinigung that your German bank(s) issued you

 

Line 59 Fill in sum of source tax that you paid that was already forwarded to Germany according to the ZIV (= Zinsinformationsverordnung = regulation for informing the country where you reside about interest you earned). You will have received a Steuerbescheinigung about it from your foreign bank.

This is about source tax on investments held in:

 

• 
  
  
• Luxembourg
  
• Austria
  
• Switzerland
  
• Liechtenstein
  
• San Marino
  
• Andorra
  
• Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man
  
• British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caico Islands, Dutch Antilles
  

 

 

Line 60, Line 61: is about losses that you had in 2008 or earlier. Put a "1" in there if you had such an old loss and now want to use it up

Line 62 is about dodgy tax evasion models like investments in a company created just to finance a movie. If you had one of those, fill in its name here and attach all relevant documentation so that the Finanzamt can decide for itself just how dodgy it was, i.e. whether to accept the losses caused by it or not.

 

However, to avoid the questions that will for sure appear from the Finanzamt on how you reached the totals that you filled into Anlage KAP, especially about the foreign part which is not automatically reported to the Finanzamt like the German capital income, it is advisable that you attach an excel table listing for each investment fund, bank, etc. all the details that you previously had to fill into the Anlage AUS (which is no longer needed, except if you filled lines 27 and 28 in Anlage KAP):

 

Country: e.g. Großbritannien, USA, Portugal

Type of capital income: e.g. Investmentfonds ABC, or Festgeld, or Zinsen, ...

Gross amount of capital income for that investment:

Foreign tax you already paid on it:

 

Also attach copies of all the banks slips you have attesting to these amounts.

 

Don't forget to attach all the Steuerbescheinigungen you got from your German banks and ZIV-banks in the original.

 

*******************************************

 

Anlage AUS

 

Officially, this form is no longer needed for foreign capital income (except if you had to fill in lines 27 and 28 in Anlage KAP, then you do need it).

[PandaMunich 16,915]

 

Line 17 Foreign Income Can you combine Building society interest here and dividend income?

 

Yes.

 

 

Line 39 Is this where you put dividends from shares?

 

It's part of the amount in line 17.

 

 

Line 53 Total of all UK taxation (I presume you use the left hand column)

 

Line 54, left column.

 

 

Do I have to put the total amount of both German and UK Income on the Mantebogen EST 1A any where? I saw it mentioned in an older post but do not see it anywhere on the 2012 form.

 

No, that's no longer in the Mantelbogen.

 

 

Do I have to use the GBP euro exchange rate for the day each payment was made or can I add it all up an use an annual rate. The link to the rates published on the other posts no longer works any idea where the info is now I cpouldn’t find it on the German Finanz Web pages.

 

Use the rate from the month you received the payment, from these official tables.

 

 

Do I have to send every tax voucher and interest statement or can I just list them on a spreadsheet. If I have to send the actual items will I get them back as the UK tax authorities also are interesed in them.

 

Send them an Excel spreadsheet and attach copies of all relevant documentation.

The important thing here is that the Finanzamt understands right away from your spreadsheet:

 

• 
  
  
• from which type of capital income and
  
• from which country
  

each amount stems.

The more transparent you are, the less follow-up questions they will have.

 

You will however have to attach the Steuerbescheingungen that you received from your German banks and ZIV-banks (see in post 1196) in the original.

 

 

FYI Ernst & Young did my tax return for the 1st 2 years paid for as a relocation expense. I provided all the information regarding interest and dividends to them as well. But all they said was it's less than 1602 so no issue. I called and asked where the Anlage KAP and AUS were and they said “the instructions for the forms that say you had to declare it were written for ordinary people” as they do tax professionally they could make the judgement that there would be no tax liability so they did not need to complete them for me, a bit shady I thought and possibly wrong.

 

Yes, that was wrong, they are not allowed to pre-empt the Finanzamt.

As you already concluded, the people at the Finanzamt have to see for themselves that you earned less than the Sparer-Pauschbetrag in total.

The reason for this extra bureaucracy is that while all German capital income is automatically reported to the Finanzamt and taxed at the source by the German banks, foreign capital income is neither reported nor taxed, so unless you fill in the Anlage KAP, they have no way of knowing how much foreign capital income you actually had.

 

Only if you only had had just German capital income would you not have had to submit the Anlage KAP.

 

The Big-4 make their money with tax returns and audits for big companies, so as a private person you were small fry to them, and were probably passed off to the most junior member on the team.

[PandaMunich 16,915]

 

I wonder if you could check my calculation below:

 

I moved with my wife from USA to Germany in May 2013. My calculation:

 

1,374€ since I'm married (from http://translate.google.de/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.vlh.de/arbeiten-pendeln/beruf/umzugspauschale-wird-auf-fast-1400-euro-erhoeht.html&prev=/search?q%3Dumzugspauschale%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dopera%26hs%3D2pa%26channel%3Dsuggest )

 

+ 1,520€ (= 2 x 760€) since we as a married couple moved from outside the EU

___________

= 2,894 €

+ 1,447 € i.e. 50% of 2,894 € on top since our last move before that one was less than 5 years ago

+ 485.61 € i.e. 13% of 3,735.48 € (2013 Stufe 1, A13 from page 2 of http://www.dbb.de/fileadmin/pdfs/einkommenstabellen/besoldungstab_bund_130101_ueberleitung.pdf ) on top since USA and Germany have different electrical outlet voltages and frequencies

___________

= 4,826.61€ final figure.

 

Is that correct?

 

Are you an employee?

If yes, please consult a Lohnsteuerhilfeverein, at least for the year you moved here, it will not cost much and they will do the whole tax return for you, and you will then have certainty that you claimed for everything possible.

 

Yes, the calculation is correct if you moved here between January and July 2013, to take up a job.

Only job-related moves are tax deductible.

 

You're right, the tax forms for 2013, which were released in January 2014, have changed a bit from the 2012 forms.

When I will get around to it, I will export the 2012 version to a new forum topic (unfortunately, it is no longer possible to open new wikis on Toytown), and update the wiki to fit the 2013 forms.

[miltonk 0]

Dear PandaMunich,

I have a question about the appliance of yearly tax free amount for the person who have started the job in the middle of the year,

So it goes as follows,

Lets imaginge that I ve started the job in July, for 3k per month. normally, in tax class 1, I will be given monthly around 1900 net, what will give me about 11500 net for this year total (from July to December).

But in scale of entire year, I will earn just 18k gross, and person who earns it during entire yer (about 1500 gross mobthly) will be just deducted by about 27% (13000 netto).

How finanzamt treat this situation? In case if I am staying in Germany, is the overpaid tax given back to me at the end of the year (2015) or simply nothing like this happens, so if I have started the job in the middle of the year, I am taxed accordingly, as I am staying in Germany for another year?

 

Thanks a lot for help!

[PandaMunich 16,915]

They also look at what you earned in your home country in that calendar year, prior to moving to Germany.

 

Generally speaking, if you earned a gross monthly salary before moving here that was lower than your German gross monthly salary, you will get German income tax reimbursed if you do a tax return.

Instructions can be found in the yellow section of the TT Elster wiki.

 

If you moved here for a job, your moving costs are tax deductible, for details please consult posts 577 and 379 in this very thread.