German Income Tax Return Simulator.

Choose the tax year and individual or joint assessment. Age, church tax and German tax liability determine which rules the simulator applies. No name, address, tax ID or bank details are needed. These selections do not establish legal eligibility.

Start with your annual income: wages, self-employment, rent, pensions, investments or eligible private sales. The simulator applies the entered deductions and the year’s income-tax rules, then compares the assessment with taxes already paid. Use established eligible figures for complex business, rental and pension cases.

Work costs are deducted at the higher of your actual costs and the employee allowance, never both. The commuting allowance pays 0.30 EUR per kilometre for the first 20 kilometres and 0.38 EUR beyond that for each day you went to your workplace, with a yearly cap of 4,500 EUR unless you used a car. The home office flat rate is 5 EUR per day up to 600 EUR in 2022 and 6 EUR per day up to 1,260 EUR from 2023.

Pension contributions are deductible up to a yearly cap; the share that counts was 94 % in 2022 and is 100 % from 2023. Basic health and care insurance is deductible in full, other insurance within the applicable cap of 1,900 EUR (2,800 EUR only for qualifying fully self-funded cover). Church tax you paid, childcare costs and donations are special expenses too.

For children, the simulator compares the child allowances with the Kindergeld entitlement and uses whichever is better for you. Medical costs count only above a reasonable burden that is calculated in bands of your income, and household services reduce the tax directly by 20 % of the labour costs within limits.

The tax is the official tariff for the year. For spouses who choose joint assessment the splitting tariff applies, which taxes half of the joint income and doubles the result. The ordinary solidarity surcharge has an exemption limit; separately taxed capital income has its own surcharge. Church tax is 8 % or 9 % of its statutory assessment base.