Ah taxes… Don’t we just all love it?
Probably one of the most boring topics to deal with but also one of the most essential ones, especially in Germany. There are many factors impacting on your income tax rate; few of them are more important than your tax class.
In this post, we will go over what it all means and if you think it’s relevant to your situation, how to change your tax class in Germany.
Tax classes in Germany: TL;DR
In nutshell; your tax class in Germany is more or less defined by your marital status. Depending on this, you will be put in different categories by the Finanzamt. This will help your employer apply the correct tax rate on your payslip, hence the name “Lohnsteuerklasse”. This impacts how much wage tax (“Lohnsteuerabzug”), solidarity contribution (“Solidaritätszuschlag”) and Church tax (“Kirchensteuer”) will be taken from your gross salary.
In other words, your net salary is directly related to your tax class in Germany.
As you might have already guessed it; this is only relevant to employees. Self-employed are paying income tax through other means.
Quick overview
There are 7 categories overall.
| Tax class | Marital status |
|---|---|
| Steuerklasse 0 | You are not a German resident. |
| Steuerklasse 1 | You are single, widow(er), separated/divorced |
| Steuerklasse 2 | You are a single parent |
| Steuerklasse 3 | You are married with a higher income (than your partner in Steuerklasse 5) |
| Steuerklasse 4 | You are married with both equivalent income |
| Steuerklasse 5 | You are married with a lower income (than your partner in Steuerklasse 3) |
| Steuerklasse 6 | The class used for additional jobs (Nebenjob or Zweitjob) |
Attention married people: you can save money
As you can see, married people can belong to different classes and optimize differently. By default, the Finanzamt will put both partners in tax class 4, when you first register your marriage or marry in Germany. However, for a lot of households, this is often not the best solution. Why, you ask?
It’s quite simple really: the German tax system knows that the higher-earner is often bearing more of the costs in the household. The idea here is to allow for a tax rebate when one of the partners earns significantly less than the other. As a result, moving from tax class 4 to tax class 3/5 might increase the net salary for the higher earner.
When is it worth to change classes in that case?
The higher-earner in the household has to earn a good deal more for this to make sense. They should earn at least 60% of the total household income.
How to change tax classes in Germany
The process to change tax class in Germany is fairly simple:
- Get a hold of the form “Antrag auf Steuerklassenwechsel bei Ehegatten” (Request for tax class change for married people). You can fill it online on the official finance ministry website this way When you have filled both pages in, you can download it as a PDF. Alternatively, you can download an empty PDF file here.
- Print-it and sign it (both partners)
- Send it to your Finanzamt
Important notes
- The tax class change will happen on the month following the request submission. So that’s when you can see a difference in your net salary.
- As mentioned at the end of the second page in the document; if both partners are employees and you have been through a tax class change in Germany, it is mandatory to submit a tax statement (Steuererklärung; more info this way) after the end of the year (e.g: do one in 2019 for the year 2018, if you changed in 2018)
FAQ
How many times can i change tax classes in Germany ?
In most cases, this is only possible once a year. However, it is possible to do this more often in the following cases:
- When your partner is not an employee anymore (becoming a freelancer, retirement, parental leave, unemployment).
- When your partner is an employee again
- When one of the partners passes away
- In case of divorce or separation
What events can be cause of a tax class change?
Very logically, life events that were just previously listed can be cause for change of tax class in Germany; marriage, divorce, death of partner, unemployment, retirement, parental leave, becoming a freelancer.
Can the tax benefit apply retroactively if i change tax classes?
Provided you make the application before 30/11 of that year, you can benefit from that tax cut for the months prior too.
Is worth it for me and my partner to make a change?
You can use this very easy to use simulator. Enter both your gross salaries in it, together with your postal code. You will be able to see if it’s worth to make a tax class change in Germany, and who should be on tax class 3.
I just got divorced/separated, what do i do now to change class?
You would use this form to signify the Finanzamt that you are now separated from your partner. The adjustment will be then made automatically after they process this document.
My partner is living abroad, can i still change tax class?
For a tax class change to be possible, both partners need to be “unbeschränkt einkommensteuerpflichtig“, which means to be subject to an unrestricted income taxation. In practical terms, this is made possible only when the partner is also a German resident. However, an exception to this rule is possible if you and your partner fulfill the following requirements (source):
- You have EU or Swiss citizenship.
- Your partner has residence in another EU country (+ Switzerland).
- At least 90% of the total income is subject to German income tax. The same applies if the income not subject to German income tax does not exceed 18 336€ in a calendar year.
Hope this little guide helped. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment if anything is unclear.
Hi Bastien,
Thank you for the great article! I am a holder of EU Blue Card. I got married in March this year but my wife will only be able to move to Germany in October after which I’ll be able to change my tax class. (She is not employed). Am I entitled to ask for reimbursement of the tax difference payed March onwards next year? I makes few hundred difference each month.
Best, Nec
Hey Nec. This would answer your question.
Hi Bastien. I live and i have been working in Deutchland from 5years 9/10months yearly. My wife was never here. We are from Romania…its any chance to change my steurklasse? i have 1 now…she work in Romania and earn like 12k yearly…thx !
Hey Bogdan. Please refer to this FAQ.
Thanks Bastien for the great article. My wife arrived in Germany in July this year and I will only be submitting my tax class change request this month. Could you please confirm if the changes in my salary would reflect in August or September. Also while filing tax returns would the tax class change reflect for the entire year or only from July when she landed in Germany.
Hello Abhijit. From September on.
Hi Bastien, Thanks for the great article!
I understood it all but I do have one question..how do I send it to the Finanzamt? just put it in an envelope and send it to their address? Are there some additional forms or docs that need to be accompanied?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Hey Elad. Yes, just send it via post. No additional docs required.
Hi Bastien,
Thank you for the great article.
I have recently got married and my husband and I get exactly the same salary (55K). Does it make any sense to change the tax class?. I have used the tax calculator you linked on your post and it calculates the same with class 1 and class 4.
Thank you for the help!!
Hey Maria. You’d better be comparing class 4 vs 3/5 to get an idea if it’s worth it. If you have relatively similar levels of income, it might not be necessary.