# Moving to Germany - tax question



## qwerty19811 (May 3, 2017)

Dear all,

I'm about to move to Germany - I accepted a job offer in Germany, but after that I realized that some tax questions I didn't cover in details, so I'm asking you for your help and advice.

Here is some background: 
1. Currently I'm not married, but live with my long term partner. 
2. We are both EU citizens, currently living in a EU country 
2. I will move to Germany on a permanent contract with German employer.
3. Salary offered is 95K euro gross per year
4. My girlfriend is employed by a company located in our home country, where she pays income tax (only 10%), health and social security. Her salary is 49K euro gross. She can work remotely from any point of the world, but she will spend less than 181/183 days in Germany. 

The dilemmas and questions I have are in two directions:
*I. Not married*
1. If she moves to Germany , can I register her on my address as my partner.
2. If she gets registered in Germany, can she pay for German health insurance? If yes, how much it would cost her?
3. If she registers in Germany, does she need to pay income tax and social security in Germany? Her only source of income is already taxed in our home country and mentioned earlier she will be in Germany less than 50% of the time.
4. Are there any tax benefits for me if she is registered as my partner in Germany and she is not working in Germany (no income from German employers) ? I guess I will be tax class I in this case, but I read somewhere that I can put her as dependent and have some deductions. 


II. *Maried*
1. If we get married before my move to Germany and she comes with me in Germany, can I put her under my health insurance and how much it would cost me in addition to my payment?
2. If we are married can I apply for the tax rate for my income in Germany under class III? 
3. If I can do the above, does it mean that I needs to submit joint tax declaration in Germany where our worldwide income will be combined? 
4. Is she going to be class V in this case? 
5. If I have to submit joint tax declaration, is her income form employment in the other country going to be taxed in Germany, and if yes with what percentage?

The main idea behind this wondering of mine is how much money (net) me and her together will make in the first and second scenario. By playing with salary calculators online, if I can be class III instead of class I, it makes a good additional monthly amount, but I need to consider what is the possible impact on her side as well, because if I make more, but she needs to pay more taxes in Germany, then I need to do the proper math. 

I know that it seems rather complex, and I have a tax advisory provided by the company, but I wanted to hear other opinions as well. 

Thank you in advance for the comments.


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## Nononymous (Jul 12, 2011)

I am by no means an expert on the German tax system, so for those numbers you should get some professional advice. You might want to speak to an insurance advisor as well as a tax advisor.

I think you have two basic approaches here. 

1. Your girlfriend moves to Germany, pays German tax on her income (instead of home-country taxes so she's not double-taxed, though of course German taxes will be higher) and has German health insurance.

2. Your girlfriend visits you in Germany. She stays less than 183 days per year so no German tax obligations. However, she probably cannot be on German health insurance. I'm not sure what the time limits are for a visiting EU citizen, when they are required to obtain a residence permit. (Were she non-EU, she could come as a tourist for 90 days twice per year without any sort of residence permit.) Even as a visitor she could still register at at your address so she could have a local bank account, library card etc.

Where I think you might run into difficulty is if you try to do some weird hybrid of the two: she "moves" to get German health insurance, but then tries not to pay German taxes by only "visiting" and not staying over 183 days per year.


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## BethP (May 22, 2017)

I'd love o hear how you get on with this, I have a similar situation with my partner who I'm not sure will be moving with me. He may just be visiting a lot at first and moving later.


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