# Reporting pension plan contributions



## walterp

I am trying to get compliant with my US taxes/ FBAR's after being in Germany for a number of years, unaware of the filing requirement. I've been gathering information on how to do this and I am basically stuck on one point: How to report my private (German) pension fund contributions on my US tax return (if at all). I've contacted the IRS but they can't really tell me how to proceed since they don't really know the details of the German pension plans. I have one state-subsidized private pension plan (Riester-Rente) where I make monthly contributions totaling roughly €1800 per year and the government contributes another €154 to annually. At retirement the fund is distributed in monthly installments and then fully taxable. Article 18A of the US-German Tax Treaty discusses pension plans, but with all the legal jargon it is not clear to me if I can just claim the tax treaty on my return or if I have to report the contributions somewhere. In addition I have a state-sponsored plan where my employer contributes €26 montly (Vermögungswirksame Leistung - VL). I began this two years ago and this continues for another four years and remains idle for another year before I have access to the fund - so again, these are contributions made by my employer and this is a fairly common plan that companies offer to employees here. Any advice is welcome!! Thanks in advance.


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## Bevdeforges

Generally speaking your pension fund contributions are not reportable (nor deductible) on your US tax returns. If the proceeds are taxable in Germany on retirement, chances are they are not taxable in the US (since generally, under the tax treaties, pension benefits are taxable only in the country of origin).

You may want to check with the IRS office in Frankfurt to be sure. (I would hope the Frankfurt office would have a clue about the German pension plans.)
Cheers,
Bev


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## walterp

Thank you Bev! I did try the office in Frankfurt but they referred me to the international office in Philadelphia where they couldn't really advise me. The bank that holds the account that my employer contributes to has asked me to fill out a w-9 form. This is with regard to the FATCA as far as I understand, but the information goes to the IRS. Therefore I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything...


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## Bevdeforges

There are those of other opinions on this, but the key thing is disclosure. Fill out the W-9 so that they cannot accuse you of "hiding" anything. Then, do your tax returns as you normally do. 

If the retirement fund is a recognized German retirement vehicle, and fully taxed by Germany when you start making withdrawals from it, there is a reasonable chance that it's covered in the part of the tax treaty that says, in essence, that pensions are taxed by the government that's paying them.

If and when the IRS has questions about them (either now or on retirement when you start tapping the fund), they'll ask, and you can say quite simply that you believed it was covered under the tax treaty. Unless there are huge amounts involved, chances are they'll never even ask.
Cheers,
Bev


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## walterp

Sounds like a plan. Thank you very much again Bev!


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