Frankfurt. The prices for petrol and diesel are constantly reaching new record levels. The federal government wants to relieve the burden on drivers. But concrete measures and a timetable are not yet known. If you need a car to get to work, you can provide relief yourself - a letter to the tax office is enough.
The background is the so-called application for a wage tax reduction: If it is foreseeable that taxpayers will incur high income-related costs, special expenses and extraordinary burdens in the next one to two years, the tax office grants an allowance. And that increases your monthly net income.
If you use your car to get to work, you can declare the costs in your tax return as business-related expenses and thus save taxes. Since the beginning of the year, commuters have been able to claim a flat rate of 38 cents per kilometer from the first kilometer onwards. Previously, only 30 cents were deductible for the first 20 kilometers.
In order for the costs to actually have an impact, they must exceed the so-called employee flat rate. This is available to every employee and is currently 1230 euros.
Anyone who commutes to work 220 days a year and covers 15 kilometers one way will break this threshold with just 1,254 euros. If there are other work-related expenses - for example for training, specialist literature or running a double household - this can add up to a decent tax refund.
However, this refund is usually only available more than a year later - after you have filled out the tax return and the tax office has processed it.
If you want to save earlier, you can apply for a wage tax reduction - for one year or two. This means that the employer withholds less tax from the gross salary each month and a higher net income ends up in the account.
Anyone who already has access to Elster, the tax administration's “online tax office”, can submit the application digitally via this portal. The application can also be downloaded from the Federal Finance Administration website (form management system), filled out, printed out and then sent by post to the tax office at your place of residence.
In order for the tax office to grant a tax exemption, the total of the expenses claimed must be more than 600 euros. When it comes to advertising expenses, only the amounts above the employee flat rate count. For special expenses, the flat rate of 36 euros must be exceeded.
Anyone who only declares the costs of commuting can benefit from the income tax reduction for a simple commute of 22 kilometers or more on 220 days a year. This results in a tax allowance of 609 euros, minus the employee flat rate.
If an employee has a personal tax rate of 30 percent and receives twelve salaries per year, roughly speaking, he or she will receive around 15 euros more in net salary per month. The savings model only becomes really interesting when you spend more money.
The expenses for commuting can be calculated precisely in advance. If you are still unsure about other costs - for example the costs of further training - you should not round up too generously. “On the one hand, the tax office will probably ask if the information is implausible,” says Daniela Karbe-Geßler, tax expert at the Taxpayers’ Association (BdSt). “And on the other hand, taxes that have not been paid enough have to be paid in the following year.”
Anyone who uses the income tax allowance is obliged to submit a tax return for the year in question. And taxpayers must state their actual - and not estimated - income and expenses and provide relevant receipts.
The bottom line is that employees always bear the same tax burden - regardless of whether they apply for the income tax reduction or not. “Which option is better depends on how you personally deal with money,” says Karbe-Geßler. “Some taxpayers use the tax office like a piggy bank and use the tax refund to finance a vacation or larger purchases.”
This averts the risk that monthly tax savings will evaporate without having a major impact on the private household budget. However, if you invest your additional net income consistently - for example in a monthly ETF savings plan - you can actually achieve a financial advantage with the income tax allowance.
Even if special expenses are high, it may be worthwhile to apply for a wage tax reduction. Parents can, for example, claim expenses for the care or debt of their children. In addition, maintenance payments or donations can also be considered. The relief amount for single parents can also increase net income.
Extraordinary loads can also be taken into account in advance. “This is particularly useful for taxpayers who are entitled to a flat rate,” says Karbe-Geßler. “The amount of these amounts is known in advance and some of them are valid for several years.” These include the flat-rate allowance for people with disabilities and survivors, the flat-rate care allowance for private carers and the disability-related travel allowance.
Spouses often bear the costs of their family or property together. “When applying for a wage tax reduction, you can decide whether certain expenses should only be taken into account for one partner or half for both,” says tax expert Karbe-Geßler. This can be specified in the application forms for a “Simplified Application”.
In addition, married people can also influence their net income by choosing the optimal tax bracket. If the higher earner chooses tax class III and the partner with the lower income chooses tax class V, the total monthly net income is particularly high. However, the low-income earner then bears a disproportionate share of the tax burden. Many couples find it fairer if both use tax class IV or IV with factor.
With this factor method, both partners pay the wage tax share that corresponds to their share of the joint income. The application for a change in tax class can be submitted directly with the application for a wage tax reduction.
If the tax office has noted the wage tax reduction or the change in tax class, the employees don't have to worry about anything else. The employer finds out about the change as soon as he calls up the so-called electronic wage tax deduction features (ELStAM) from the tax office as part of the next payroll accounting.
However: “The employer is only informed of the allowance granted via ELStAM, not how this came about,” says a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF). Employees do not have to worry that their boss will unintentionally receive very personal information in this way - for example about high medical costs.
