German Taxes

Now that I am organizing my American tax papers, I briefly researched German taxes.

Once an employee has worked or lived in Germany for more than six months, they are considered a resident for tax purposes. But I wonder if this means for the tax year or year-to-date. For example, I moved to Germany in August, so for tax year 2008, I was not a resident in Germany. But in a matter of days is my six-month anniversary of living in Germany.

One can get tax forms from the Finanzamt or get them sent to your work (!?). The easiest way would be to file online via Elster, which has information in English, videos, and a hotline. Unfortunately, the hotline is ,14 centimes a minute.

If you have deductions, you file also an Anlage N. Apparently, if you contribute to social security in your home country, you can deduct this so that you are not paying twice the amount of 'social' taxes.

After you file, you will receive a notification whether you owe more taxes or get a refund. In German, this is a Bescheid über Einkommensteuer.

The deadline for filing the 2008 German tax return is May 31, 2009.

Speaking about taxes, if one leaves Germany permanently before living here for five years, you may get your contribution to the German pension system back. You must wait until you have lived two years away from the EU to claim reimbursement.