Hello Everybody,

I am from India, a german uni graduate and I will be starting work this month. At the end of the year I would like to claim Tax returns based on: 

1. Financial support to my Mother
2. Flight tickets to visit India.

Regarding financial support to my mother under Außergewöhnliche Belastungen, I have read articles that I have to send the money directly to my Mom. However, I have sent money previously using services like HDFC's QuickRemit, where I have to send the money to a german bank account and it is transfered by HDFC which is like transfer via a 3rd party.

I only have a bank account at Direkt Anlage Bank (a typical German online bank) and I suspect that the money transfer might be expensive with a direct transfer. Does anybody has any experience with this? Is there any bank which offers direct transfer at affordable rates? Alternatively, could anybody claim tax returns on money sent via 3rd party?

Thanks a lot. Greetings from Bochum,

Abhishek

The recipt from Quickremit should be sufficient..If needed you can show the complete flow from your account to account in India..
For the flight tickt to India, I am not sure if you get any tax benefit unless the trip is for business use etc..

Thanks a lot Mr. N Purohit. Do you have any experience with it? I will also try to get relocation costs and driver's licence costs tax deducted. I am planning to invest in retirement plans as well, India's NPS is returning at 9.6% interest nowadays, but I am sure that I won't be able to claim tax benefits in Germany from it. Do you have any other ideas to save taxes? 

And regarding flight tickets, I am more or less confident that it wouldn't be an issue. The elctricity bill is on my name in one of our apartments. So with it, I should qualify for a double household maintenance.

Never used double househlod maintainance. Even I have a house in India which is currently not being used at all, can be a good idea if it works..
Regarding the tax benefits regarding Indian NPS, these are the provision which are provided by Indian tax regulations and will not be applicable here. In case if you have a income in India as well, then you can get these returns by filing tax in India. India and Germany do have a double tax avoidance treaty.
Regarding the remit2india, I am sure it works..