SteuerGo FAQs

(2022) What is a statutory annuity?

Annuities are fixed payments linked to a person's lifetime. Annuities and other benefits from statutory pension insurance, the agricultural pension fund, and professional pension schemes are only partially taxable, depending on the year the pension started.

If you have received a pension from statutory pension insurance, you can request a “Statement for submission to the tax office” regarding your pension income as a filling aid. This will then be sent to you automatically in subsequent years. If the pension started in 2020, the taxable portion is 80%.

No entries regarding the taxable portion are required in the tax return. The tax-free part of the pension is determined in the year following the start of the pension and generally applies for the entire duration of the pension. In subsequent years, this amount is deducted from the annual (gross) pension amount.

Pension increases based on regular adjustments are fully taxable. The same applies to benefits from private basic pension contracts (so-called Rürup pensions).

Annuities include in particular

• old-age pensions,
• disability pensions,
• incapacity pensions,
• occupational disability pensions,
• survivor's pensions such as widow's/widower's pensions,
• orphan's pensions, or
• parental pensions.

One-off payments, such as death benefits or settlements of small pensions, must also be declared. If you have been recognised as a victim of National Socialist persecution under § 1 of the Federal Compensation Act (BEG) and pension periods due to persecution were taken into account in the calculation of your statutory pension, please inform the tax office informally.

Such periods may have been considered under the Act on the Payment of Pensions from Employment in a Ghetto (ZRBG), the Act on the Settlement of National Socialist Injustice in Social Insurance (WGSVG), or the Foreign Pensions Act (FRG). This also applies to widow's/widower's pensions if the deceased was recognised as a victim under § 1 BEG and the pension includes corresponding pension periods. The tax office will check whether this pension is tax-free.