Frantic wrote: ↑Wed Jul 23, 2025 1:24 pm
Now my friend had already the solution
: "
don't submit the steuerklarung! If you did not change employeer or you did not have additional incomes apart the ones from your employeer, you can omit to submit it !"
Apart the "smartassery" of the solution
I believe that a Steuererklarung must always be submitted, especially if there are this speciale cases like the way Solidarity Tax is calculated and levied. Am I right ?
Well, your friend is on the right path.
But there are other reasons why you would have to file a tax return, e.g. if you were in the "tax class combination 3 and 5" or in "tax class combination 4 and 4
with a factor" (which nearly nobody uses).
Or if you had non-German income or had received interest from the Finanzamt because of a tax reimbursement.
The reasons why an employee has to file a tax return are listed in § 46 EStG:
https://dejure.org/gesetze/EStG/46.html
You can also read them in this article (scroll down to the list):
https://taxfix-de.translate.goog/ratgeb ... _hist=true
But Solidaritätszuschlag is not a reason because of which you would have to file a tax return.
If the only reason you are filing is that your employer's payroll department was incapable and did not retain the right amount of Solidaritätszuschlag on all of your salary components (which they are obliged to!), then you do not have to file a tax return.
But you probably have a another reason to make the tax return mandatory, top reasons are the spouses having tax classes 3 and 5 or non-German capital or rental income.
