Your working life is over - but that does not mean that the tax office no longer wants to know anything about you. If certain conditions are met, you must file a tax return even as a pensioner. Since 2005, the Retirement Income Act has been in force, which regulates the transition to deferred taxation.
It works on the principle that contributions to pension insurance can be claimed as special expenses in the tax return, but the fiscal authorities collect the money later when the pension is paid out. The law will not be fully implemented until 2040, when those who retire will have to pay tax on their pension in full. Until then, tax-free allowances apply, which decrease with each retirement year.
So far, only about one in four pensioners has filed a tax return, but many are now being asked to do so by the tax office. This is due to the improved networking of the authorities: State, private and professional pension insurance companies inform the tax offices to whom they pay pensions. With the help of the tax identification number, this data can now also be assigned.
If the tax office has reason to believe that your income exceeds the basic tax-free amount, it will ask you to file a tax return - in the worst case, even retroactively up to 2005. You should respond to the letter from the office in any case and, if necessary, ask for an extension of the deadline. Otherwise you may incur high interest for late payment. In addition, the officials can estimate your tax - and it is unlikely that you will come off well.
Exemption is possible
If your total income is below the tax-free subsistence level, you can be exempted from the obligation to file a tax return. Many tax offices handle this relatively non-bureaucratically: a list of income and the corresponding income-related expenses and tax-free amounts is often sufficient to convince the officials.
If it is likely that your income will not increase significantly in the next few years, you can also apply for a non-assessment certificate (Nichtveranlagungsbescheinigung). With this certificate, you will not have to file a tax return for up to three years - of course, only as long as you do not have to pay any taxes. You can also submit the certificate to the bank, which makes the exemption order for interest income unnecessary.
Obligation to file a tax return
However, you may also be generally obliged to file a tax return. This is the case if you
- have income from employment. However, mini-jobs are excluded from this.
- receive pension payments, such as a civil servant's pension or widow's pension.
- receive a company pension or a factory pension.
- have claimed losses in the last year.
- have not paid a final withholding tax on investment income.
Special rules for pensioners
Special rules apply to pensioners. They must file a tax return if
- the pension or a salary has already been taxed in tax classes V, IV or VI.
- an allowance was entered on the tax card and the income was above 10.200 Euro (19.400 Euro for married couples).
- there was income above 410 Euro from pensions, rentals and leases, wage replacement benefits (e.g. unemployment benefits or sick pay) or other sources of income.
- on investment income above the exemption amount has not yet been paid withholding tax.
- spouses have chosen separate assessment.
- in the income tax return of the previous year a loss has been determined.
- the pension allowance for a civil servant salary was higher than the deductible insurance premiums (applies only to pensions up to 10.200 Euro).
- a severance payment has been taxed according to the so-called one fifth regulation.
How much time do you have?
The deadline for submitting the tax return is 31 May of the following year, but can be extended upon request. If you hire a tax advisor or income tax assistance union, the deadline is automatically postponed to 31 December. If you file your tax return voluntarily, for example, because you hope to receive refunds, you have four years to do so. You can therefore submit your 2012 tax return until December 31, 2016.
No taxes despite tax return
If you have to file a tax return, this does not automatically mean that you also have to pay taxes. You are only threatened with additional claims if your taxable income - in addition to the statutory pension, this also includes, for example, regular payments from a Riester or Rürup contract, the share of earnings from private pensions, rental income and income from self-employment - is above the above-mentioned tax-free subsistence minimum.
This basic minimum is the amount of income that you have to pay in taxes.
This basic tax-free amount is the same for everyone, whether pensioner or not. In 2012, it was 8.004 Euro for single people and 16.008 Euro for married people. That doesn't seem like much, but it's not that hard to get below that limit. After all, we are only talking about the income that is still taxable, i.e. what is left after deducting the pension allowance, savers' allowance, special expenses and income-related expenses.
An example: You get 1.000 Euro a month pension, so 12.000 Euro a year. Now the pension allowance comes into play. If you retired in 2012, 36 percent of your pension remains tax-free, so 4.320 Euro. Only 7.680 Euro would be taxable - and that falls under the basic tax-free amount. According to "Finanztest," the rule of thumb is that anyone who retired before 2006 can collect about 19.100 Euro in gross pension tax-free. The basic tax-free amount decreases for each pensioner year. If you have been retired since 2012, only about 15.120 Euro remain tax-free.
Important: The allowance of the first pension year remains constant over the entire pension term. So in the example, the allowance is always 4.320 Euro, even if the pension increases over the years. So if the pension climbs, for example, at some point to 12.480 Euro a year (1.040 a month), you will have to pay tax on 8.160 Euro and thus possibly break the hurdle of the basic tax-free amount.
Income can be "calculated down"
In addition to the pension allowance, there are a number of other ways to reduce taxable income. So you can claim in the Form R income-related expenses, the allowance for pensioners is currently 102 Euro. However, if you had higher expenses, you can also deduct more. For example, loan interest for the subsequent payment of pension insurance contributions, costs for pension and insurance advice or union dues are recognised as income-related expenses.
In addition, there are pension expenses, such as contributions to health and nursing care insurance, accident or motor vehicle insurance. They should be entered in the form "Pension expenses". You can enter costs for household help or tradesmen as well as church tax paid in the form. Under certain circumstances, you can also claim exceptional expenses, for example, if you had particularly high medical expenses.