# Getting married and living in Germany... Confused by rules regarding taxes, etc



## raisin bunny (Feb 28, 2016)

A little background info: I am German, my husband as of yesterday is American. We got married during our vacation in America and will get our marriage recognized in Germany when we are back. We both live and work in Germany. He is looking for a new job (in Germany) and we thought he would have one by the time we got married but it has been more difficult for him to find one than we thought (it may get easier now that we are married (?)
Right now he is working on a research project which is paid but not taxed. So he does not have to pay any taxes. I am regularly employed in Germany and paying taxes.

I have several questions:
> Will my husband have to pay taxes now? (he is paid by a German fellowship. It's technically not a job but a research project. I don't think he will but he will still have to have a "Steuerklasse" which I am confused by.)
> What will change for me: which tax class should I choose? (My husband will be making more money than me in the future and is actually making more right now since he is not being taxed.)
> What else changes for us? My husband will change his status but if there is anything people have found useful I would love to know!

Any info/ links/ etc would be much appreciated! 
Thank you so much!!


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## Nononymous (Jul 12, 2011)

My assumption is that getting married won't immediately change anything regarding your husband's status. He has a Stipendium that's not taxed, he's probably has an Aufenhaltserlaubnis as a researcher. Once you deal with the paperwork of having your marriage recognized, he can go apply for a different type of residence permit as the spouse of a German national. Would he have German-language requirements for that, or be required to take an integration course? Under domestic law the rules for him marrying a German will be more strict than the simpler spouse of an EU/EEA national rules. (I suspect not, because, to take a purely hypothetical and potentially offensive example, an American post-doc is going to be treated a whole lot better than a 19-year-old from rural Anatolia marrying a distant cousin...)

I have no idea how his change of status would affect the tax on the Stipendium. Might be worth delaying the bureaucracy until that work is finished.

As for the rest of your questions, they are best directed to a Steuerberater.


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## raisin bunny (Feb 28, 2016)

Thank you so much for your helpful answer! 
I will talk to a Steuerberater, I'm sure there is someone specialized in those kind of topics. We have a few other questions regarding international bank transactions, investing internationally, etc anyway so this was very helpful! Thank you!!


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