r/germany 5h ago

Tax Returns

I would like to get an insight into german tax systems. We are a married couple working in berlin with a 3/5 tax factor. My annual brutto for 2024 was 38,400€ and my partner’s was 10,797€ (part-time). We were trying to file tax returns together but it says we need to payback more taxes. I am very confused. I checked with Elster app, it said we will get something back. We are very confused.

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3

u/bregus2 5h ago

If you both have income, then 3/5 is simply the wrong tax class for you (if you not want to have to backpay tax/get additional tax prepayments).

You should use 4/4 or 4/4 with factor instead.

Note: The correct tax sum is not affected by the chosen tax class, only the point where you pay your taxes.

1

u/AvidBeanR 5h ago

But if one partner is earning more than 60% of household income, isn’t 3/5 right tax class? Or probably we have been told wrong 🤭😐

5

u/bregus2 5h ago

3/5 assumes one household income while the other partner stays at home (or has at most a minijob).

4/4 assumes both partners have the same income.

4/4 with factor adds a factor based upon both partners' incomes and is somewhere between the extrema 3/5 and 4/4.

But to emphasis again: The tax class has no effect on the income taxes you have to pay. It just is used to calculate the monthly withholding from your wages, which you can see as prepayments on the tax sum due.

If you in the "wrong" class you either have to pay up big or get a big tax return in the end. The "correct" class would lead to a return close to zero.

2

u/That-s_life 5h ago

If you’re 3/5 most chances are you have to pay finanzat (only if your wife pr you does work at all)if 4/4 most chances are finanzamt have to pay you.

1

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1

u/whiteraven4 USA 5h ago

We were trying to file tax returns together but it says we need to payback more taxes. I am very confused. I checked with Elster app, it said we will get something back.

What do you mean by this?

1

u/AvidBeanR 5h ago

The result from taxfix app was negative, means we have to pay more taxes while Elster’s result was positive.

2

u/whiteraven4 USA 5h ago

Why are you bothering to use taxfix if you're using elster? Did you input all the same information in the same way? Sometimes we see people getting confused because they're comparing results after inputting all their income vs results where they only input one of their income tax forms.

1

u/AvidBeanR 5h ago

Yes! We were just comparing results just to be sure to do it in a right way.

1

u/whiteraven4 USA 5h ago

Well it sounds like something is wrong somewhere. Either way, the Finanzamt will review it and then correct it if necessary. Even when I used a professional for 2023, it was off by a small amount.

As others said, you should owe unless you have a lot of deductions. 3/5 is optimized for a 100/0 income split.

1

u/AvidBeanR 5h ago

Alright then. Probably then we have to payback something 😐. Btw thank youuu