German taxes: Own transportation home-work

[pilotman330]

Dear All,

I work for a german airline since 16 months and I am not very good at taxes forms etc.

Does anyone knows or can explain the german taxation regarding own transportation from home to work and back?

I heard that now, if you take your car, taxes pays two ways instead of one way. So it makes things interesting (double).

I was told that it is about 0,30€ for each Kilometer, is that right?

I got 700km in between home / work (550kms in germany + 150kms in belgium) so that means that I need to drive 1400kms if I drive to work up and down. I do it three times a month so that gives 4200kms each month.

so: 50 400kms/year.

That gives: 50400 . 0,30€ = 15 120€ that I can deduct from the taxes right?

I am asking the question, if I am right it would be quite interesting because fuelwise I would spend 5400 € so that's almost 10 000€ of tax return.

Would be good to get your point of view!

Thanks in advance!

[mad_jock]

Get a german tax accountant todo it there are huge amounts of things you can claim for which you won`t know about. One friend recently got all there reunification tax back for the last 6 years. You also have to make sure that the paper work is right to dodge the church tax.

But you need to get the right one from a expat forum. Some see it as a social duty to extract as much as possible from expats and dodging the church tax is a sin.

[FliegerTiger]

I always use a "Lohnsteuerhilfeverein" - they're a non-profit organisation, you can probably find one for your area - usually much cheaper than paying for a tax advisor (I got 1500 Euros reimbursed from my last tax declaration thanks to them). Where in Germany are you living?

[pilotman330]

I got an appartment in Leipzig

[mad_jock]

And Eastern German tax is different to Western.

Its also worth while signing up for some education course as that can be offset against tax as well. There is a whole raft of things you can offset against.

[smith]

If it's anything like the UK tax system, if you are actually employed by the airline, you won't be able to claim tax back eg most people who drive to their place of work can't claim against tax.

However if you are a contract pilot working through an agency you may be able to. However in the UK anyway, even if you are a contractor based at the same place of work for a long period of time you then become an "employee" for tax reasons.

[mad_jock]

Its nothing like the UK tax system apart from you have to pay it.

There are hundreds of things you can claim for. Education so if you take a German language course or distance learning degree you can claim for the whole lot.

Even as a employee.

They also try and get you for other things such as the church tax. You can opt out from that but if you do the first thing someone will ask is if you got married in a church. If you did you have to pay it. One lad I worked with had opt'd out at a early age. Moved to the UK married a scouse burd in a church and then moved back to Germany. One of the HR girls was looking at his wedding photo's. Next week he got hit for all the tax since he had opt'd out.

There is a reunification tax if you live in west german states. If you have a pretty hot accountant as a forgiener you can get out of paying that one but its not easy.

If you play rugby, alot of the Ref's are ex British forces and one or two of them have been in Germany for 20-30 years and know the system inside out. One in particular is a lorry driver but to be honest could make a living sorting ex pats tax out in Germany and UK for those with a double income in each country.

On paper your looking at 45-50% tax but if you get someone that knows what they are doing you can get it down to 25-30%.

There is also a whole load of stuff to do with Capital gains tax which is well worth looking into. When I last did it if you had held the shares for over a year I think it was you didn't have to pay the full rate and it was less than the UK's rate.

[Seaking8959]

Pilotman330,

German tax form are one hell to fill out, even for a native. ;) You should really consider asking a pro to do it for you. But, as you have an appartment in Leipzig, you should also consider to get the double household "doppelte Haushaltsführung". As far as transportation costs are concerned, you would have the routes from your leipzig appartment to your work -the first 8km of every trip covert with transportation expenses, the travel from Leipsch to Belgium would be part of the "doppelte Haushaltsführung". But, as I said, ask someone who knows that stuff. At my tax office Aviation magazines pass as work related cost. ;)

[jetopa]

I got an appartment in Leipzig


In this case (and if this is your official German residence), you can't claim anything for driving back and forth to Belgium. To do so is your own personal choice for which you cannot get anything back.

[Denti]

Actually, he can. It is called "doppelte Haushaltsführung". Meaning that the center of his personal life is still at his place in Belgium while he has to keep a second flat in Leipzig for work.

The capital gain taxation has changed, post 2009 it is a flat 25% except if your personal tax rate is lower. Taxation is progressive, while most pilots will earn enough to fall into the max tax rate of 42% only the income over 52k € will be taxed at that rate, the income below that value will be taxed at a lowe rate.

And then there is always a tax free porition of your pay for working at night, weekends and holidays.

For example as a badly payed FO I earned last year around 82k total, of that only 70k got taxed and my total average tax rate was around 28% although I earned enough to pay the max tax rate. By the way, there is the so called rich tax for incomes over 250k of 45%, same rules apply as to the other taxes.

[Boeingbuddy]

@ Pilotanlage 330
There is a website called easydutyplan.
Search it on the Internet.
It worked for most German Airlines and it is quite
easy to handle. I use it since two years and never
had any problem with my Finanzamt.
The costs are around 50€.