Understand the calculation
Rules and data effective scope: Assessment years 2025 and 2026; receipt years 2026 and 2027
Last reviewed: 2026-10-30
Table of Contents
Read the four amounts separately
The Vorabpauschale is deemed investment income, not the amount of tax taken from your account. Partial exemption and your remaining savings allowance are applied before estimating the tax. Distributions can already cover the entire deemed return.
Use the fund's first and last redemption prices of the calendar year. Multiplying them by the same number of shares gives a consistent comparison. Contributions buy more shares and are not appreciation. This model therefore excludes mixed lots, savings plans, sales and reinvestments.
The calculation under §18 InvStG
The uncapped base return is opening value multiplied by 70% of the published basis rate. It is capped at positive year-end appreciation plus distributions. Distributions are then deducted; a negative remainder does not create an advance amount. In the acquisition year, the amount is reduced by one twelfth for every complete month before the purchase month.
Purchases from February support accumulating funds without distributions only. The first price of the calendar year remains the reference, rather than the purchase price. The year-end price must be known; any scenario entered during the year is provisional.
What the tax estimate covers
Partial exemption follows the fund's documented tax classification for private assets. The available savings allowance belongs to the following year's deemed receipt. Tax uses the site's verified capital-income function: the 25% rate or the church-tax formula, plus solidarity surcharge.
Loss pots, foreign tax credits, lower-rate assessments and settlement across banks are excluded. Receipt in 2027 assumes the law reviewed on the stated date remains in force. A bank's settlement and rounding sequence can cause small differences.
Choose one holding that the model can describe
The calculator works with one unchanged cohort of fund units that remains held through the end of the assessment year. Enter the number of units, the fund price at the beginning of the year and the price at year-end. Do not use the current value of the entire account if you bought or sold different batches during the year. Deposits are purchases of additional units, not investment gains. Combining them with price appreciation would overstate the gain limit and could produce an advance amount for performance that never occurred.
A savings plan with monthly purchases consists of several cohorts. Each acquisition date can have its own time reduction, and distributions can complicate the allocation further. For a midyear acquisition, this simplified calculator supports an accumulating fund without distributions only. It does not reconstruct a broker's complete transaction history. If the holding does not match the stated scope, compare individual supported cohorts separately where appropriate or rely on the provider's detailed tax calculation. Keep sales and transferred units outside an unchanged-cohort illustration.
Follow the sequence from basis rate to taxable amount
The basis rate is a published annual input, not your fund's actual investment return and not a forecast. The statutory base yield first uses the opening value and 70% of that rate. The result is then limited by the year's positive performance including the relevant distributions. Distributions reduce the advance amount under the statutory sequence; the amount cannot become negative. A fund can therefore rise in value while producing a smaller advance, or no advance at all, because sufficient distributions have already been made.
Partial exemption is applied after the advance amount has been determined. An equity fund qualifying for a 30% exemption leaves 70% of the advance taxable. That is a different use of 70% from the earlier base-yield factor. Keeping both steps visible prevents an easy mistake: applying the exemption to the opening investment value or counting the same reduction twice. The reference table lists fund categories, but classification must come from the fund's investment conditions. A marketing name containing equity or property is not enough to establish its statutory category.
Assessment year and receipt year have different jobs
The investment performance belongs to the assessment year, while the advance is treated as received at the start of the following year under the statutory timing rule. This matters for the allowance available to cover the taxable amount. Use the remaining allowance for the receipt year, taking account of other capital income already using it. An exemption order placed with one bank does not automatically make the same allowance available at every other bank. The calculator asks for an available amount rather than assuming the whole annual allowance is unused.
For the 2026 assessment, receipt falls in 2027. The displayed 2027 tax illustration uses currently enacted parameters as a proxy within the stated scope; it is not a new forecast of legislation. A later statutory change may alter the final deduction. The basis rate for an unsupported future assessment year is never invented. When checking a broker's debit, align the assessment year, receipt date, number of units, applicable fund category and allowance before comparing the final tax figure. A timing mismatch can explain an apparent discrepancy.
Understand the estimate alongside the broker statement
The result distinguishes the advance amount, exempt share, taxable share, allowance coverage and estimated capital-income taxes. The advance itself is not a cash distribution and is not identical to the tax debited. A positive advance may produce no immediate tax if the available allowance covers it. Conversely, a fund can make no cash payment while a tax deduction still requires money in the settlement account. These are different events, so do not compare the advance amount directly with the bank's cash debit.
Loss offsets, foreign tax credits and transaction-specific adjustments are outside this calculator. It also does not replace a later disposal calculation. Keep the broker's record of previously recognised advance amounts, because the statutory treatment on a later sale is a separate stage and should avoid taxing the same recognised amount again in the applicable calculation. For a practical check, preserve the inputs and source year with your own records, inspect the intermediate steps and investigate the first differing step rather than changing the allowance merely to force a matching final total.
A worked example
For 1,000 equity-fund shares opening at EUR 100 and closing at EUR 110, held all year with no distributions, the 2026 base return is EUR 2,240. After 30% partial exemption, EUR 1,568 is taxable. With no available allowance or church tax, capital-income tax is EUR 392 and solidarity surcharge EUR 21.56, totalling EUR 413.56.
| Step | Assumption / calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Opening value | 1,000 × €100.00 | €100,000.00 |
| Base yield | 100,000 × 3.2 % × 70 % | €2,240.00 |
| Partial exemption | 30 % | €672.00 |
| Taxable amount | No available allowance | €1,568.00 |
| Estimated tax including Soli | No church tax; receipt 2027, current-law assumptions | €413.56 |
Basis rates and partial exemptions
| Assessment year | Basis rate | 70% of rate | Receipt date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.53 % | 1.771 % | 2026-01-02 | BMF · 2025 |
| 2026 | 3.2 % | 2.24 % | 2027-01-04 | BMF · 2026 |
| Fund classification | Exempt share |
|---|---|
| Equity fund (qualifying >50% equity) | 30 % |
| Mixed fund (qualifying ≥25% equity) | 15 % |
| Real-estate fund (qualifying >50% property) | 60 % |
| Foreign real-estate fund (qualifying >50% foreign property) | 80 % |
| Other investment fund | 0 % |
Common questions
Can a falling investment still have an advance amount?
If total performance including distributions is negative, the advance amount is zero. Distributions themselves may still be taxed; their tax is outside this calculator.
Does this matter when I sell?
Previously assessed advance amounts reduce the later disposal gain under §19 InvStG. The capital gains calculator has a separate input for those amounts.
Why are the assessment and receipt years different?
The amount is calculated for the past calendar year but deemed received on the first working day of the next year. The 2026 amount is deemed received on 4 January 2027.
Sources and scope
The linked sources explain the rules, effective dates and scope used in this calculator.
- Bundesministerium der Justiz / Bundesamt für Justiz: InvStG · §18 · 2026-10-30Source checked: 2026-10-30 · Effective scope: 2025–2026
- Bundesministerium der Justiz / Bundesamt für Justiz: InvStG · §20; §2 · 2026-10-30Source checked: 2026-10-30 · Effective scope: 2025–2026
- Bundesministerium der Justiz / Bundesamt für Justiz: EStG · §32d Abs. 1; §20 Abs. 9 · 2026-10-30Source checked: 2026-10-30 · Effective scope: 2025–2026
- BMF · 10.01.2025 · IV C 1 – S 1980/00230/009/002Assessment year 2025 · Receipt 2026-01-02 · Checked 2026-10-30
- BMF · 13.01.2026 · IV C 1 – S 1980/00230/012/001Assessment year 2026 · Receipt 2027-01-04 · Checked 2026-10-30