A tax return in Germany is usually compulsory for all people working in the country – even if your work lasted only a few months or you were not permanently registered, you can still get a tax refund. To do so, you need to submit your tax return by the deadline – for this you will need the right form, documents confirming your income and tax contributions paid. Find out how the process works, what you will need and how much money you can get back!
Below you’ll find all the information you need to know about submitting your tax return in Germany – we’ve also prepared answers to the most common questions about tax refunds. With our support you can easily go through all the steps of the tax return process and get the best possible terms. Take advantage of the opportunity offered by the German tax system and contact us today. Download and complete the attached documents and send them back to us and we will take care of the rest – welcome!
Download and complete the documents.
Send them back to us.
We will take care of the formalities and you will receive the money!
Hi. I have settled my tax in Germany for the last two years, plus pit36zg for 2020 in Poland. Everything expeditiously dealt with from the hand, yesterday I was in the office, today all the statements sent. Full professionalism, highly recommend!!! Greetings!
Pełen profesjonalizm, bardzo miła obsługa. Gorąco polecam! Swój zwrot podatku z Niemiec odzyskałem szybko i skutecznie polecam.
The office is a bit far from where I live, but a friend of mine who I work with in Germany settled here before and it was really worth the drive. I settled all the issues. Next time I will settle everything by e-mail 😉 Five stars from me.
I settled my husband’s German tax with tax class 3. I work in an office and earn almost the national average. In other offices the calculations came out with surcharges of 800-900€. In Borsuk a surcharge of 40€ – we received the decision a few days ago. I recommend this office.
Good customer contact, I got all my questions answered and, most importantly, I successfully obtained my tax refund from Germany
My husband has settled with Mr Badger for 5 years. He works on a German oil rig. No office has been able to settle him properly.
Germany settled in 3 months. Money on account, decision to Bytom. OK.
Niemcy rozliczone w 3 tygodnie! Dla mnie rekord. yes yes yes!
At our law firm, we will help you with your tax refund from Germany. We will take care of all the formalities and make sure that your tax return goes quickly and without any problems. We are aware that for a person who does not deal with accounting in the broad sense of the word, settling tax from Germany can be difficult and complicated. Thanks to Biuro Borsuk , however, you no longer have to fear that you will skip formalities or miss an important deadline. Below you will find the most important information about how a tax refund in Germany works.
Before you use our services, it would be good for you to know some basic information about tax refunds from Germany. That way, our communication will run much more smoothly and you will know what really happens to your money. Knowing the entire procedure for settling your income is important because of your awareness and sense of empowerment regarding your hard-earned money abroad. Take advantage of the reliefs to which you are entitled and do not let overpaid advances lapse.
Whether or not a taxpayer is liable to pay tax in Germany is clearly and explicitly determined by tax residency. According to German law, a person can become a tax resident if he/she lives in the country permanently or has resided there continuously for six full months. Permanent residence is understood as the transfer of the most important interests in life, such as a flat or house, running a business, having a family, etc. In a nutshell, it can be said that the more connections you have with Germany, the greater the chance of obtaining tax residency.
Tax resident status means, in practice, unlimited tax liability, but more importantly, the ability to benefit from the many privileges that the German government has prepared for its taxpayers. Residents in Germany are entitled to benefit from a tax-free amount, joint taxation with a spouse, a tax-free amount for children, a relief amount for single parents and many other reliefs allowing for a higher return.
In order to obtain tax resident status in Germany, a foreigner should submit an application. The right to apply for resident status is acquired after continuous residence in Germany for no less than 183 days in a given tax year. In addition to the application, you should also fulfil the additional condition of achieving the required income earned outside Germany. Your foreign income must not exceed the equivalent of the amount set in euros for the year in question. German income must account for 90% of your total earnings.
If you fulfil the above-mentioned conditions, you will obtain the status of tax resident in Germany and acquire rights and privileges provided by the authorities of our western neighbours.
The settlement of German income tax does not apply to persons who have not obtained resident status. This is most often the case for foreigners who have been working in Germany for less than six months. According to the regulations in force, they are not obliged to submit an annual return and should settle their income in homeland.
Although non-residents may voluntarily file a return in Germany, they are not entitled to take advantage of tax reliefs and other tax privileges provided for by the western neighbour. Importantly, in such a case, it is also not possible to file a joint return with a spouse. Foreigners usually choose to settle in Germany in order to obtain a tax refund. However, you need to know that this is not a full-fledged settlement of income, but only a procedure to determine the amount of annual income tax and compare it with the sum of advance payments made during the tax year. If you are interested in a tax refund for working in Germany, you should therefore submit a declaration to the local tax authority.
Voluntary settlement is also often used by residents who do not have a statutory obligation to file an annual return with the German tax authorities. Sometimes this type of action is advantageous because it gives you the opportunity to receive a large tax refund from the Finanzamt (for expenses such as travel to the workplace, medication, implants, glasses, etc.). You can submit such a settlement up to four years back.
In this section you will find useful information on how to obtain a tax refund from Germany. With this knowledge, the whole procedure will no longer seem as complicated to you as it might have been before.
A tax refund in Germany is available to anyone who has legally worked in the country and the tax on their salary (Lohnstauer) was paid during the tax year in the form of the prescribed advance payments and has turned out to be higher than determined by the German tax office.
The taxpayer must file an annual return and the German tax office, after analysis, determines the correct amount of income tax due. If the amount paid is higher than what was determined by the office, an overpayment is determined. The decision to refund the overpayment to the address indicated in the return results in the money being transferred to the taxpayer’s account. Importantly, settlement with the German tax authorities is possible up to four years back.
Recovering tax from Germany is subject to the requirement to provide documents that prove the amount of advance payments made during the tax year. After all, it is on the basis of these documents that any overpayment can be calculated. In Germany, such documents are primarily the tax certificate (Lohnsteuerbescheinigung) and the tax card (Lohnsteuerkarte). It is also possible to settle on the basis of monthly or weekly pay slips (Abrechnung). It is important to know that the German tax office only requires the last two pay slips from before the end of employment. The certificates contain information about the wages earned with one employer. So if you have worked at several places during the tax year, you should have certificates from each of them. On the tax card, you can add the earnings you have received from successive employers.
Nowadays, it is much more common to use a system for the electronic transfer of earnings data directly to the relevant tax office. Tax cards are therefore going out of use.
If you have used tax deductions during the year, you need to collect all the documents that prove you were entitled to them. In most cases, these are certificates of family status, confirmation of registration in Germany and others that depend on your individual housing, family and registration situation. Please note that you are only entitled to tax credits if you are a tax resident, i.e. if you have been resident in Germany for more than 183 days during the tax year.
So if you’re interested in a tax refund from Germany, make sure you provide our office with the relevant documents to enable us to work with you. All of the above-mentioned documents will be necessary when completing the form for your annual tax return.
The amount of tax refund received from Germany is individual for each taxpayer. A lot depends on factors such as your income (both in Germany and Poland), the amount of tax you have paid, your marital status, your family situation, where you live, where you work, your age, the allowances you are entitled to and many more.
If you have an annual income of up to €10,000, you can even count on a return of 100% of the amount of tax you have paid. If you have exceeded this amount, a full refund is not possible and specific calculations based on the documents provided are needed.
Our firm will help you settle your tax in Germany and enable you to receive a refund of the tax you have paid. Typically, our clients can expect up to several hundred euros to be transferred by the German tax office to their account.
According to German law, kindergeld is due to every legally working person and has a child who:
The purpose of kindergeld is to help parents with the costs of living and bringing up their children. Please note that the kindergeld must be applied for separately and is not linked to a tax return. It is also very important to notify the tax office in Germany that you are no longer working in the country. Otherwise, you have to reckon with a very high financial penalty, which is imposed on people who receive kindergeld without working.
Settlement with the German tax authorities should take place within four years of the tax liability occurring. Such a period was introduced in 2007. Settlement for an earlier period is only permissible if it concerns exceptional situations. Usually, these are cases where the taxpayer has been unable to file his or her return by the required deadline for reasons entirely beyond his or her control. Know, however, that ignorance of the deadlines is not seen as such a reason. The onus is on you to comply with the formalities within the relevant deadlines.
According to the regulations, the waiting time for a tax refund from Germany is usually between three and six months after the submission of the documents. Much depends, of course, on how quickly the respective tax office accepts the required documents. There is therefore no single formal deadline for processing your application. You will have to be patient.
Germany is a country to which Poles willingly travel in search of better jobs and a more comfortable life. It is also not difficult to find cases where young people, in the hope of obtaining a better education, decide to study at Western universities. This is primarily due to the fact that Germany has been the leading economy in the European Union for many years, and the country’s government is known for its responsible spending planning and orderly tax system.
For many people, the extensive social policy is also a major incentive to leave. As a result, if you become unemployed, you can count on government support that allows you to live in dignity until you find new employment. Although taxes in this country initially seem quite high, some of the money can be recovered by applying for a refund. By taking advantage of the numerous tax reliefs, we can make the amount of the tax refund from abroad really attractive.
The German labour market is known for being very receptive to professionals. Those who have technical skills confirmed by work experience and completed courses can count on really satisfactory wages and social benefits in our western neighbour. The most popular professions are:
In addition to sound management, there are 3 very important aspects that make Poles want to work in the West.
As the closest neighbour, Germany is an attractive destination for Polish workers due to the lack of need for long journeys. Going to work is not expensive and separation from the family is less acute due to the possibility of coming home frequently. A person who chooses to work in Germany therefore does not feel so isolated and finds it easier to cope with such a departure.
The proximity to Germany means that many of our compatriots speak German well. What is more, children have been taught the language in schools for years and are thus prepared for contact with their western neighbours. In some parts of Poland, it is very difficult to find a person who does not communicate at least to a basic level in German. The absence of a barrier against this background is therefore a huge advantage, which makes Poles eager to travel to Germany for work or education.
It is enough to make a small comparison between the lowest wages in Germany and Poland to know that wages are much higher in our neighbour. An average German and a Pole are separated by a financial gap, even though they often do the same job. Earning outside Poland allows you to quickly put money aside for the purpose you choose. The cost of living and food is much lower than in Poland, of course taking currency differences into account.
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