Nebenbeschäftigung under 450 EUR classified as Steuerklasse 6 instead of Minijob. Retroactively fixable?

[SZJX 0]

I started a second employment in November 2019, with a monthly pay below 450 Euros, and I don't have any other second employments. I'm now doing my tax declarations, and I have just realized that all this time, the employer actually classified the job under Steuerklasse 6 instead of Minijob! If this goes unchanged, I'll not only not get the full pay, but I'll have to pay a huge amount of Nachzahlung (> 1500 Euros) to the Finanzamt, due to Steuerklasse 6 being taxed really harshly.

 

I know that I'm a total idiot for not realizing the issue for so long. I just assumed that the employer would do its job and classify the employment correctly. I didn't even know that it was still possible for a job below 450 Euros to be technically classified into one of the Steuerklassen. And whenever I received the pay at the end of the month, I just thought the Pauschal amount was deducted from it. I didn't even look into the issue when I received the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung earlier this year, thinking that since it was another employment after all, it would be natural for me to receive such a document, even though it should have been a Minijob. Only now that I go through a Steuererklärung software, did this issue dawn on me, and I realized what Steuerklasse 6 really means after doing a search online.

 

Can I still do something about it? From what I saw somewhere around the web, e.g.

https://www.datev-community.de/t5/Personalwirtschaft/Minijob-r%C3%BCckwirkende-%C3%84nderung-Steuermerkmal/td-p/183948#_=_ and https://www.haufe.de/personal/haufe-personal-office-platin/minijob-geringfuegig-entlohnte-beschaeftigungen-in-der-en-332-wechsel-nach-ablauf-des-kalenderjahres_idesk_PI42323_HI2812335.html, it's apparently possible to retroactively say that the job should be treated as a Minijob, as long as it is communicated to and discussed with the Minijobzentrum and the Finanzamt. I guess I'll need to contact the employer and tell them to do so as soon as possible?

 

If for some reason the past tax classification cannot be changed anymore, is there any benefit for me at all for the job to be classified under Steuerklasse 6 instead of under Minijob? From what I see, there seem to be pure disadvantages (since even for a Minijob the employer still pays into Rentenversicherung anyways), and I can't believe the current situation is actually something possible.

[White Rose of Yorkshire 1,096]

4 hours ago, SZJX said:

I started a second employment in November 2019, with a monthly pay below 450 Euros, and I don't have any other second employments. I'm now doing my tax declarations, and I have just realized that all this time, the employer actually classified the job under Steuerklasse 6 instead of Minijob! If this goes unchanged, I'll not only not get the full pay, but I'll have to pay a huge amount of Nachzahlung (> 1500 Euros) to the Finanzamt, due to Steuerklasse 6 being taxed really harshly.

 

 

 

 

There is something wrong here or information is missing. Are you self-employed in your first job or do you work for a company? It is the employers responsibility to deduct taxes etc. from a salary. Perhaps your salary from employer 2 was below the tax-free personal allowance. Why do you think you will have a Nachzahlung to pay?

 

You have been working for employer number 2 for almost two years and you neve noticed anything?

 

 

[snowingagain 5,357]

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[snowingagain 5,357]

 

4 hours ago, SZJX said:

I just assumed that the employer would do its job and classify the employment correctly. I didn't even know that it was still possible for a job below 450 Euros to be technically classified into one of the Steuerklassen.

Lots of information missing.  Also a job under 450 is not automatically a minijob, surely?   I know it is attractive for an employer, saves them money and work , but is it an "obligation"? Is it really "incorrect" ?  Have you asked your employer about this?   You posted in 2019 about this, though noone replied.  

[murphaph 9,814]

Surely a second job would be taxed at your top rate of tax on your primary job. It wouldn't be tax free. I think you may have completely misunderstood what a minijob is I'm afraid.

 

Otherwise I could have multiple employments all paying 450  and pay no income tax whatsoever.

[snowingagain 5,357]

11 minutes ago, murphaph said:

Otherwise I could have multiple employments all paying 450  and pay no income tax whatsoever.

Think you can have more than one minijob as long as the total income is less than 450.

[murphaph 9,814]

Read what I wrote again ;-)

[snowingagain 5,357]

1 hour ago, murphaph said:

Read what I wrote again ;-)

I must be missing something.  I thought you could have a minijob on top of your main employment.  Or more than one, as long as total from mini jobs less than the 450 limit.  Happy to be corrected.

[LeonG 14,810]

You can have a minijob on top of your full time (taxed) job and the minijob would still be tax free.  However, if you have two or more minijobs and make more than 450€ total, they are no longer tax free.  There's an example here: https://www.steuerklassen.com/lohnsteuerklassen/steuerklasse-6-bei-minijob/

[SZJX 0]

Sorry, didn't receive any notification in my email, even though I checked "Notify me of replies", and I thought that nobody replied.

[SZJX 0]

On 10/16/2021, 9:04:15, murphaph said:

Surely a second job would be taxed at your top rate of tax on your primary job. It wouldn't be tax free. I think you may have completely misunderstood what a minijob is I'm afraid.

 

Otherwise I could have multiple employments all paying 450  and pay no income tax whatsoever.

 

On 10/16/2021, 11:04:29, snowingagain said:

I must be missing something.  I thought you could have a minijob on top of your main employment.  Or more than one, as long as total from mini jobs less than the 450 limit.  Happy to be corrected.

 

On 10/16/2021, 11:24:49, LeonG said:

You can have a minijob on top of your full time (taxed) job and the minijob would still be tax free.  However, if you have two or more minijobs and make more than 450€ total, they are no longer tax free.  There's an example here: https://www.steuerklassen.com/lohnsteuerklassen/steuerklasse-6-bei-minijob/

Exactly this. Only after I started to look up information about "Steuerklasse 6" I realized that it actually isn't the thing the job is supposed to fall under, when the intention was to take up a secondary employment as a "Minijob". I just made a (stupid) assumption all along.

 

There was one person posting a similar question at Finanzfrage.net https://www.finanzfrage.net/g/frage/probleme-mit-steuerklasse-6-und-minijob (of course, they noticed the issue as soon as they received the slip). One explanation given there was:

 

Quote

Ich vermute Du hast, ohne es zu wissen, den Minijob mit Steuermerkmalen ausgeübt = Steuerklasse I - Du hattest aber keinen Lohnsteuerabzug, weil der Betrag unter dem steuerfreien Grundbetrag liegt - daher ist Dir das wahrscheinlich bisher noch nicht aufgefallen...

 

Die ArbG müssen am ELSTAM-Verfahren teilnehmen (Datenaustausch mit dem Finanzamt) - wenn Dich nun, was auch richtig und sinvoll ist, der neue ArbG mit Hauptjob anmeldet (Steuerklasse I) wird automatisch der Minijob auf Steuerklasse VI gesetzt, denn für jedes 2. und weitere Arbeitsverhältnis wird man in die Steuerklasse VI eingestuft.

 

In diesem Augenblick werden Deine Minijobeinkünfte aus 2015 komplett als Arbeitseinkommen gerechnet und Deinem Jahresbruttoarbeitslohn hinzugerechnet - ggf. kann es im ungünstigsten Fall sogar zu einer Steuernachzahlung kommen

 

Also

 

Quote

Hier ist aufgrund der Erstmeldung durch neuen AG das LSt-Merkmal beim Minijob automatisch - und zwar falsch - gesetzt worden. Bitte bei der Personal/Lohnstelle des 2. AG die Lohnsteuermerkmale korrigieren lassen; das Beschäftigungsverhältnis bleibt weiter ein Minijob, solange Du keinen weiteren Minijob hast.  Die zuviel gezahlte LSt erhältst Du im Rahmen der EStE 2015 im nächsten Jahr angerechnet/erstattet. Die anteiligen SV-Anteile jedoch nicht.

 

Hinweis: Solltest Du jedoch noch einen weiteren Minijob haben, ist die Abrechnung korrekt. Denn bei einer sv-pflichtigen Hauptbeschäftigung kann unabhängig von der Entlohnung nur der erste Nebenjob ein Minijob sein; jedes weitere Beschäftigungsverhältnis muss dann zwingend mit LSt-Kl. 6 abgerechnet werden.

 

This is somewhat similar to my situation. Prior to taking up my main job, I was employed via this employer (a university) with the job as my only job, with a pay higher than 450 Euros, so it fell under Steuerklasse I. Then I took up a main job, and canceled the previous contract with the university, but later the professor was still willing to employ me to continue helping out on his project, with a lower hour count and a pay lower than 450 Euros per month. Therefore I signed a contract in November 2019 again. This is when something must have gone wrong and I was automatically assigned to Steuerklasse 6, perhaps due to the classification as Steuerklasse I with the previous university contract, or perhaps just due to an error.

 

Quote

"das Beschäftigungsverhältnis bleibt weiter ein Minijob, solange Du keinen weiteren Minijob hast."

 

Grundsätzlich richtig - aber beim Minijob hat der ArbG ein Wahlrecht ob er nach Steuermerkmalen oder mit 2% Pauschsteuer abrechnet - und hier wurde offensichtlich Steuermerkmale gewählt.

 

Damit unterliegen auch die Einkünfte aus dem Minijob der vollen Besteuerung - und zwar von Januar an...

Das wirkt sich immer dann negativ aus, wenn parallel eine Hauptbeschäftigung ausgeübt wird...

 

I never knew that there is actually a "Wahlrecht" to either treat it as a Minijob OR under the normal tax classes... This sounds quite insane to me, but I guess this is just how the bureaucracy is here and what one has to deal with.

 

So the person who wrote the second paragraph thinks that one might still get their taxes back in this situation, while some others were not sure. The first link I posted in my original post certainly hinted that this would be a possibility. But I wonder if this will now rest a lot on both the university staff and the Finanzamt subjectively willing to go through the bureaucracy and help me out, or whether it's more like an objective thing I have a right to insist on.

[SZJX 0]

On 10/16/2021, 6:08:52, White Rose of Yorkshire said:

 

 

There is something wrong here or information is missing. Are you self-employed in your first job or do you work for a company? It is the employers responsibility to deduct taxes etc. from a salary. Perhaps your salary from employer 2 was below the tax-free personal allowance. Why do you think you will have a Nachzahlung to pay?

 

You have been working for employer number 2 for almost two years and you neve noticed anything?

 

 

 

On 10/16/2021, 6:47:05, snowingagain said:

 

Lots of information missing.  Also a job under 450 is not automatically a minijob, surely?   I know it is attractive for an employer, saves them money and work , but is it an "obligation"? Is it really "incorrect" ?  Have you asked your employer about this?   You posted in 2019 about this, though noone replied.  

 

My main job is at a company.

 

The second employer has been deducting a fairly small amount of taxes from my monthly pay under Steuerklasse 6 (no idea how they calculated this). So I just assumed that this is the "Pauschal" that you have to pay while under a Minijob and never dug into this, which was of course a totally stupid and wrong assumption. Only now I realized that the Pauschal is actually 2% while the taxes they deducted were more than 2%. But it's still far lower than the actual tax rate I'm supposed to pay under Steuerklasse 6, taking the income of my main job into consideration. That's why I suddenly find myself having to pay a ton of money to the Finanzamt if this goes uncorrected.

 

The post in 2019 seemed to have been about whether I was allowed to take up a second employment under Blue Card, which I later got an answer from the Ausländerbehörde that I could, so I signed the second contract in November.

 

Yeah, there is a "Wahlrecht" for the employer to treat it as a Minijob or not, apparently... Even though I don't understand why. I also read here https://www.minijob-zentrale.de/DE/01_minijobs/02_gewerblich/03_infos_fuer_arbeitgeber_und_entgeltabrechner/07_was_steuerlich_beachten/01_besteuerung_450/node.html that

 

Quote

Bei 450-Euro-Minijobs dürfen Sie als Arbeitgeber die Art der Besteuerung bestimmen. Sie entscheiden, ob der Minijob pauschal mit zwei Prozent versteuert wird oder individuell nach der Lohnsteuerklasse Ihres Minijobbers. Bitte berücksichtigen Sie dabei die Gesamtsituation Ihres Minijobbers, damit ihm keine Nachteile entstehen.

 

So it seems that the employer is supposed to make this choice considering the employee's benefits, which in my case clearly would have been to treat it as a Minijob instead of put it under Steuerklasse 6.

[LeonG 14,810]

2 minutes ago, SZJX said:

I never knew that there is actually a "Wahlrecht" to either treat it as a Minijob OR under the normal tax classes... This sounds quite insane to me, but I guess this is just how the bureaucracy is here and what one has to deal with.

 

The "Wahlrecht" is explained here: https://www.minijob-zentrale.de/DE/01_minijobs/02_gewerblich/03_infos_fuer_arbeitgeber_und_entgeltabrechner/07_was_steuerlich_beachten/01_besteuerung_450/node.html 

It does ask that the employer should look at your individual situation as not to put you at a disadvantage but I guess you have to be careful too.

 

A couple of years ago, I had a minijob along with my full time job.  I just checked what they wrote for Steuerklasse on my payslips and they say "P" which I suspect stands for pauschalsteuer.

[SZJX 0]

13 minutes ago, LeonG said:

 

The "Wahlrecht" is explained here: https://www.minijob-zentrale.de/DE/01_minijobs/02_gewerblich/03_infos_fuer_arbeitgeber_und_entgeltabrechner/07_was_steuerlich_beachten/01_besteuerung_450/node.html 

It does ask that the employer should look at your individual situation as not to put you at a disadvantage but I guess you have to be careful too.

 

A couple of years ago, I had a minijob along with my full time job.  I just checked what they wrote for Steuerklasse on my payslips and they say "P" which I suspect stands for pauschalsteuer.

Thanks for the info. So it seems that the Steuerklasse field should still be filled out on the payslip, just not with a "6" but with a "P" :-P I just blindly trusted them to sort it out properly from the beginning, and I made the stupid assumption all along that they took care of it properly, and that the taxes deducted on my payslip were the Pauschal, as I've never seen what a Minijob payslip should actually look like...