Hi all,

As I am leaving Deutschland this month, i had been to a tax berater this morning and got clarified few things. Thot these info might be useful for others,

1. I can claim all my flight trips to home, if i have a house/apartment in my homeland. This is considered as double housing.
2. Because of double housing, I can get back about more than 10% of my monthly rental paid in deutschland
3. Also eligible for claming for the makler provision.
4. Parents support is upto 2500¬ per year can be claimed.
5. The first arrival air ticket and the last leaving air ticket can also be claimed.
6. The monthly storm bills can also be submitted for claims, I am not sure about more details here as i am paying warm miete.
7. I can submit claims, had i bought any furnitures in my house.
8. During the period when my wife was not here, i can claim for her supporting expenses.
9. As a foreigner, i am eligible to claim approx 20¬ for the first 90 days here. I was told this is a rule in finanzamt.
10. The telephone bills can also be submitted.

Plus few other things, like taxi bills, travelling expenses if ur workplace is far etc.,etc.,

I have to pay 600¬ for the year 2004 as fees and i will get back 26% of this in my 2005 tax declaration. I am not sure whether this fees is too high or not. But i was told this includes, the documentation, Mwst, also this is set based on a person salary. If it is a straightforward tax declaration only with Lohnsteuerkarte it is only 200¬ plus Mwst. I would like to have your views, whether this fee is reasonable. But I was guaranteed that i will get a minimum..minimum 2500¬ to 3000¬ back from finanzamt.

Would like to have your views. Thanks and Regards, Asian

"6. The monthly storm bills can also be submitted for claims, I am not sure about more details here as i am paying warm miete."

partly, you will have to prove that you use significant amount of electricity for your work and not for living.

"7. I can submit claims, had i bought any furnitures in my house."

it depends. for the furniture that is needed for your job - yes, otherwise - very problematic.

"10. The telephone bills can also be submitted."

same as in case of electricity but much easier, especially when you work in IT and the payments for internet are in the telephone bills as well

600 euro seems to be quite expensive in my opinion. the berater can put everything in the paper but in the end the finanzamt who will decide what is deducted and what isn't.
I know my colleague berater put everything in it and got a nice figure then FA rejected everything.

So good luck with your application and good luck with your new life, work and of course success always.

regards,

VP_2004

VP_2004, Thanks, Infact i too had the same feeling yesterday regarding the fees and i have consulted another berater this morning and she said her fees only 300 for the same case!! 50% reduction!! I am thinking of going for this, rather searching for more and more beraters. This berater told me that i can get either a part of my telephone bills or claim the air tickets. I cannot claim both at the same time.

Regards, Asian.

What has tel to do with air tickets?
I don't get it.

It is not important how much you pay, but how much you get. If you get 6000 euro then is 600 euro OK.
some Steuerberater take 10%. That way if you get more he gets also and that is fair.

DvD
According to the consultant, she advised me either to show the telephone bills (which means a part of it i have used to call my home) or show my airtickets (which means, i have visited my home to see my parents etc.,).. Only one of the above will be approved by the finanzamt.. I have made five personal trips to home in year 2004.

In my case, as i am leaving germany this month, they are not willing to go for percentage agreement. (coz finanzamt pays direct to my bank account).

Regards, Asian

"This berater told me that i can get either a part of my telephone bills or claim the air tickets. I cannot claim both at the same time."

yes you can.

"she advised me either to show the telephone bills (which means a part of it i have used to call my home)"

did she forget that all connections are listed in telephone bills? FA would look through those and deduct from taxes an actual amount that was paid for calling home. i said "would" 'cause with such an argumentation it is most likely that you will not get anything.

if you want to deduct your telephone bills from taxes you must argument that the telephone / internet was used mostly for your work. such a thing is easy when you are self-employed (tell FA that you work usually at home) or unemployed (tell FA that you use phone / internet in order to find a new job). if you work in some company, you can always tell FA that you use internet mostly for further training and therefore the cost of internet must be deducted from the taxes

btw i am really surprised that people only now start thinking about tax returns. i submitted my application on 12.01. - why let the state to use your money longer than it must be done?

and i do not pay any income taxes currently you see, FA thought that i would provide them information about "voraussichtliche Einkünfte" myself so that they could tell me how much i must pay, but i answered them that "voraussichtliche Einkünfte" - partly because of actions of my friends from immigration office - unfortunately can not be predicted at all

Hi,
If some body take steuerbrater & he could not handle case properly, can we take back fees from him or what else can be done(steuerbrater showed me good amount, but at first reply from FA i got even less amount as I calculated with software by myself).
Also what is eTIN,is this unique for each person or not. I have worked 6 month with one company & later 6 months with other company. I have eTIN from later company but don't have from first company. Should I ask first company for eTIN or it will be same as by new company. Is it esential to have eTIN?

Regards.

dilbir

I do not think it is possible to claim money from them. Because they do not give any written guarantee. Let me tell my experience, Day before yesterday, i was with a consultant and i gave all my papers to her. (Over the phone before meeting her, i was told that it would cost around 200¬ per year). In that assumption, we started the discussion and she started filling up all info inside a software and took all my papers and guaranteed me that i will get a minimum of 4k back from finanzamt. During the end of the discussion she told me that i have to pay her 600¬ (the bad thing was she was supporting her arguement, that i get lot of money back from finanzamt. So I should pay her), i could not decided anything and i said i will pay the 600¬ after i get the money from finanzamt. But she refused that idea, coz she said, according her, after the submission her job is completed and she should get paid for her job and she cannot wait for finanzamt. And the next day i consulted another consultant and she said she will do the same work for 300¬ and i found it is reliable (coz my papers and claims are bit complex), but my documents are with the first consultant. So, I went to her to collect back the documents and she was not ready to give back any documents!! She said, the work is almost complete, and i just need to sign and pay her, that is it!! She also said, that i will a minimum of 6k back from finanzamt (2k higher than the previous day, :-))I was bit angry, but i didnt show it to her, I said, that i have to declare taxes in my own country, and i need a copy of them. Finally, with lot of hesitation, she made photocopy herself and gave me.

So, there is no way to get back the money from them, unless we have a written agreement from them.

Regards, Asian

good for you that you still can get all your document back.
I come from a country that a lot of kind of bad stuff can happen, therefore I always make sure the fee before I choose one.

Don't be so excited with the outcome of the calculation. It can be happened that SB know that you are going to leave, so they put a lot of crap to your application because you can't claim back.

"So, I went to her to collect back the documents and she was not ready to give back any documents!! She said, the work is almost complete, and i just need to sign and pay her, that is it!!"

i guess you learned a lesson? NEVER give original documents to anybody. make copies ;)

Ja, it was a lesson, I was told in the phone it would cost around 200¬, the other reason was me to give all documents, because i wanted to finish everything on that day itself as i am running short of time. I am not really expecting any big sum from the finanzamt, as long as the returns are more than my SB fee it is fine.