Hi Friends,

This is my first post to the forum and expect a good reply as I could see from other posts.

I am in germany on GC and was here for 7 months in last year.

This is the first time I am supposted to file the tax.

Can somebody please let me know the detail procedure for the same?

Hiring lawyer is a costly affair as I understand. Can you please advise me on this? will it help? Can I do it my self? Please note that I don't understand German at all. So any tax program, which is in German is not going to help me much.

Please advice.

Thanks,

prkoparkar

Hi,

Did u mean tax-consultant instead of Lawyer?
I would advice you to go for a tax-consultant. Which city are u anyway? Without knowing german it is difficult to do it urself, but atleast some of ur friends or colleagues who know german can help. But the question is do they have the time to help you out?

Cheers
Rajesh

other solution will be the Lohnsteuer eV.
They are relatively cheaper than tax consultant. some verein in big city such as Münich even over service in English. Don't try to do it yourself if you can't speak german. cheers :-)

Hi,

u can try Mr. Satyajit sharma in stuttgart. He works in lohnsteuerverein, stuttgart. He also speaks hindi. U can contact him at 01728874865.

Greetings,
vamsi.

I missed to mension that I am staying in Cologne.

Any advise on the Tax-Consultant in cologne. (Yes I do mean Tax consultant and not the lawyer)

Thanks,

prkoparkar

Hi,

theres one in Frankfurt.Hes good and speaks very good english.

Mr Obyulut
65-4 Kaiser strasse
Frankfurt
Ph : 069253001.

me (& many of my friends) got good tax returns when they filed it with this guy.

how much was this good tax return?

around 7K euros

for only one year?
unbelivable

how much did he took?
what big payments are counted there?

7K absolutely not possible assuming 40K-50K of Gross. otherwise german govt. should honour you by paying over and above the tax deducted from you. ha..ha..ha..

I got about 4k return showing support for my parents and child in my native country.

Regards,

Baskey

Hello Baskey,

You said that you got 3-4K back each year for sending money back to support family.
May I know how much have you sent back to home approximately?
I would like to do so, but till now I brought the money back with me when I flied home. Considering the cost of the money transfer. I brought approximately 4K with me.

If the differences between cost (send and exchange rate) and the tax return is very big like in your case (3-4K), I will certainlly do it by money transfer.
I thank you in advance.

regards,


kusnadi

The limit is just around €4000 per annum and this is for both parents and also it is possible to show that your are supporting you grandparents financially. Whatever is the case the maximum tax return you can get for this kind of support does not exceed €2000

Probably if your child is living in your home country then you could get more like baskey got and I never went through that procedure.

Thanks for your tip Nreddy.

Have any of you got a problem to get the tax return for supporting parents?
How to get the unterhaltsbescheinigung in understandable leaguage (english) :-)?

I have asked my tax consultant, he said that I have to get a letter from my country official/tax office that my parents earn less money than I can support my parents. And the statement has be renewed every years.

The problem is, if the document is issued in local leaguange right? does anybody have experience with this?



thanks.

Normally your tax consultant should have that kind of form to help you fill it up easily and your parents will sign the document therefore you don't need any further documents to proof but then if he is not having one it is better to find another tax cosultant or prove it by submitting a copy of your parents income certificate (English or German translated one with an attestation from your local municipality officer).

Hi,

I support my father in law, mother in law,mother and daughter. Based on the country they stay, their expenditure is calculated. For eg, for india it is about 220 euro per month per person maximum and this amount may be reduced if your salary is low. I am not exactly knowing the calculation. This is rough idea only. All my tax works done by Lohnsteuer BW. and i simply submit all bank statements.

Again i may be getting more as i support around 4 people in my native place including my daughter. Also you could carry money personally and give it to them. that also allowed to show. For that you could show ur flight details and bank withdrawal before the travel and letter from dependants for the receipt of the money. Thats it.

hope it helps,

regards,

baskey

Hi ,

apart from supporting my parents, i also got benefit for travel, double household.These were the biggest account heads.

Sanjay

Hello Sanjay,

I think you are single right?
I asked my consultant, I can't do that since I am married and wife in germany.

Hello,
I think you can apply for double household even if your wife is in germany. I did this and the finanzamt accepted this.
For 2002 , the tax consultant who did the tax clearance for me told that I cant get double household.But this year another tax consultant applied for 2003 and the finanzamt accepted. I enquired whether I can do that for 2002 again, but they refused saying that the ' Steuerbescheid' cannot be changed but the older consultant should pay for your damages and they told me that they can help me in this regard by taking him to court if he doesnt pay anything back to me.

So I will be sending a formal letter to him to give me back the money.

One more thing, if you have something like an Arbeitzimmer at home you can also claim your electricity, water and heating bills stating that you used them for your work. My tax consultant told me, you cant claim for the whole bill but something like a 'Pauschal'.

I think you only can recieve this amount once and that too within first two years of your application for tax returns. I am not sure about these laws, your tax consultant should give you clear answer. If I want to get this money again I cannot because I already recieved it in the first year.

Hi NReddy,

This is regarding sending money to parents. you said there is a form which we have to get sign from out parents. do you have any softcopy of that or at least name of that form can you please send me. my mail id is
chaganti74 at yahoo dot com

thanx
CSREDDY