Too much tax is often deducted with the monthly wage tax deduction. If you have high income-related expenses, special expenses or exceptional costs, you do not have to wait until the end of the year before you receive a tax refund. You can have these expenses already taken into account during the year as wage tax allowances to reduce taxes and thus have a higher net salary paid out month after month.
With an application for an income tax reduction, you can have income tax allowances entered in the pay-as-you-earn (ELStAM) so that the employer withholds less income tax each month.
The previous six-page application form has been replaced by the main form and pre-printed annexes. The latter only needs to be completed and submitted when they are actually needed. The forms for children, income-related expenses and/or special expenses only need to be completed and submitted when they are actually needed.
In many cases, you only need to fill in the two-page form "Vereinfachten Antrag auf Lohnsteuererürzung" (Simplified Application for Wage Tax Reduction) if the amount of tax-free allowance applied for is not higher than in the previous year or if only the "Number of child allowances" has changed. This is the case, for example, if a child allowance is applied for the first time because a child was born or because a child is still in vocational training after the age of 18.
If an application was already made in the previous year and the tax allowances have not changed, it is sufficient to fill in the personal details and the section "Wage tax reduction in the simplified procedure" (Lohnsteuer-Ermäßigung im vereinfachten Verfahren) in the new main form.
A wage tax reduction for income-related expenses, special expenses, exceptional costs ( excluding flat-rate amounts for disabled persons and surviving dependents) and for the relief amount for single parents in the case of widows can only be applied for if the total expenses and amounts are higher than 600 Euro in the calendar year. When calculating this application limit, income-related expenses only count if they exceed 1.000 Euro, for recipients of pension benefits - 102 Euro. Special expenses are taken into account if they exceed the special expenses flat rate of 36 Euro (72 Euro for spouses / life partners).
Here you will find the most important application forms.