Common mistakes and one change – When the tax return suddenly costs money
Taxpayers often make a mistake when entering the basic pension
Quelle: Getty Images/Emilija Manevska
The majority of employees receive something back from the tax office after the tax return. However, it can also cost money if important information has been forgotten. There are stumbling blocks lurking for pension savers as a result of a change.
Noch taxpayers have some time. You must submit your tax return to the tax office by October 2 if you are obliged to submit it. If a tax advisor helps them, the deadline is even as late as July 31, 2024.
But recently, the same applies to this topic again: the sooner, the better. Because the majority of employees or self-employed people get something back from the tax office at the end, and since the banks have started paying interest again, an earlier payment can be worth real money.
However, the tax return can also cost money, if important information has been forgotten. This is particularly possible when specifying costs for insurance and retirement provision, as there are a number of traps lurking here. The correct and complete entry in the forms or online in the Elster portal is therefore crucial.
Insurers have been relieving their customers for a number of years by automatically transmitting information on pension contributions – for example for a Riester or basic pension – to the tax office. Although this simplified procedure is convenient, it harbors a number of stumbling blocks for pension savers, warns the financial service provider MLP.
They should pay particular attention to the attachments AV (for Riester contracts) and pension expenses (e.g. for basic pensions) and attach them to the tax return in order to receive a corresponding subsidy from the tax office based on the pension contributions paid. This ensures that the deduction of special expenses is requested for all contracts whose data has been transmitted electronically by the contract provider to the tax authorities.
Taxpayers also often make a mistake when entering the basic pension and an often combined supplementary disability insurance. The total annual contribution must be entered correctly in line 8 of the “Pension expenses” appendix.
Instead, many enter this in line 47 under “voluntary independent employment and disability insurance”, the MLP experts report from their own experience. There, however, only the contributions to the independent occupational disability insurance are to be carried out. Contributions to subsidized company pension schemes (bAV), on the other hand, do not have to be stated in the tax return, because this form of pension provision is processed directly via the employer’s payslip.
However, the contributions to health and nursing care insurance should be stated in any case. These are to be entered in lines 11 to 44 of the Annex “Pension expenses”. Here, the entire basic contribution can be claimed for tax purposes, even if the expenses exceed the maximum amount for other pension expenses of 1900 euros (self-employed: 2800 euros).
Health insurance for children can be scheduled as a special expense
Double the amount applies to married couples with a joint assessment. Parents can also set the health insurance contributions for their children as special expenses, provided that they support them, be it in cash or in kind.
If the contributions from health and long-term care insurance are below the applicable maximum amount, it is worth specifying additional pension expenses in lines 47 to 50, such as liability, accident or disability insurance.
“Employees can also claim the professional portion of a contribution to legal protection insurance for tax purposes,” says Michael Schwarz, head of property insurance at MLP. “Insurers often show this contribution explicitly in the contribution calculation.” This contribution share must be specified in Appendix N under income-related expenses.
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