German Tax Refund Calculator: Calculate Your Refund

Are you married?

The marital status has an impact on tax assessment and thus on the tax calculation. If you are not married, your income will be taxed according to the basic rate; if you are married, however, income tax will be calculated according to the significantly more favourable splitting rate.

Gross annual wage

Please enter your gross annual salary including Christmas and holiday pay and any bonuses you may have paid.

Travel allowance

Under German income tax law, the commuter allowance for commuting between home and the regular workplace is a lump sum for travel expenses.

The commuting allowance reduces taxable income considerably. The allowance for income-related expenses (1.000 Euro) will be exceeded starting at distances between home and work as litte as 15 kilometres, if covered on 230 days or more!

Church tax liability

If you are a member of a religious community (e. g. Roman Catholic Church, Protestant regional churches, free religious communities, etc.), you must pay church tax.

The amount of church tax depends on your place of residence. If you live in Bavaria or Baden-Wuerttemberg, you pay 8 percent of income tax or wage tax, and 9 percent in the other federal states.

Federal state

Please indicate the federal state in which you live and file your income tax return.

The income tax rate is the same in all federal states, but there are differences, for example, in church tax.

Number of children

Please indicate the number of children in your household for whom you are entitled to child benefit or child allowances.

You are entitled to child benefit for your biological and adopted children. For foster children, you can apply for child benefit if they live in your family and have a long-term relationship with your family and if they are supervised, cared for and educated by you.

If your child is already of legal age, he or she can only be included in your tax return under certain conditions, e. g. if he or she is unemployed (up to 21 years of age) or in vocational training (up to 25 years of age).

Disabled children may also be considered beyond the age of 25 years if the disability occurs before the age of 25.

Childcare costs

The following expenses can be claimed as childcare costs in your tax return:

• Expenditure for child care in a kindergarten, nursery or after-school care centre
• Expenses for a childminder
• Expenditure for a child nurse, educator or babysitter in the household
• Expenditure on the employment of household helpers and au pairs, provided that they care for the child
• Travel expenses incurred with own car for the responsible person
• Expenses for free board and lodging, if no wages are paid

Childcare costs can only be claimed for tax purposes if the child has not yet reached the age of 14. The childcare costs have been deductible as special expenses since 2012.

You can claim up to 6.000 Euro in childcare costs per child and year. The tax office deducts two thirds of this, i.e. a maximum of 4,000 Euro, as special expenses from your taxable income. It does not matter whether the child was constantly cared for throughout the year or only for a few days.

Meals for the child are not included in the childcare costs.

Household services

Tax-deductible services include, for example

• Cleaning the flat, windows, staircase and other common rooms,
• Garden maintenance (e. g. lawn mowing, hedge trimming),
• Removal services by private individuals (less reimbursements by third parties).

Income tax is reduced by 20 percent of expenses (maximum 4.000 Euros).

Craftsmen's services

Within the scope of the craftsman's services, all expenses for renovation, maintenance and modernisation measures for the apartment used for one's own purposes (apartment, house, rented apartment) are subsidised. These include e. g.

• Work on interior and exterior walls, roof or facade
• Painting, repairs to doors, windows, wall cabinets, fitted kitchens, radiators and heating pipes,
• Work on floor coverings (e. g. carpet, parquet, tiles),
• Refurbishment of the bathroom,
• Repairs to washing machine, dishwasher, stove, TV etc.
• Garden design activities, pavement work
• Inspection work (e. g. chimney sweeping, lightning protection, fire extinguishers and detectors).

Reduction in income tax by 20% of expenses, up to a maximum of 1,200 Euros.

Donations

In the tax return you can declare donations and membership fees for

• Church or social organizations
• Political parties
• Independent electoral associations and
• Foundations

claim

Membership fees for sports, homeland, animal breeding, singing clubs etc. are not tax-deductible.