What is an Income Tax Certificate and What Does It Include?

At the end of the year, every employee in Germany should receive a wage tax certificate from their employer. With this document, you can verify your annual income as well as the taxes and insurance contributions you paid. This form contains much more information useful for the annual tax return in Germany. What exactly is a wage tax certificate? What else can we find in it? Warnival comes the wage tax certificate? In today’s article, we have prepared the most important information about the German wage tax certificate – we recommend you to read it.

The German wage tax certificate – what exactly is it?

The wage tax certificate (LSB) is an official document issued by the employer that provides an overview of annual income, tax payments, and social security contributions. It is one of the most important documents for the annual tax return and is essential for accounting with the tax office.

Every employer is obliged to issue this certificate once a year and make it available to the employee. This applies exclusively to employees with social security liable employment.

Don’t forget other important documents**

In addition to the wage tax certificate, you need many other documents for a complete tax return. A detailed overview of welche Unterlagen Sie für die Steuererklärung brauchencan be found in our comprehensive guide. There you will also learn which additional proofs can increase your tax refund.

Important: The wage tax certificate is issued separately by each employer. This means that employees who worked at several companies throughout the year will receive a separate certificate from each employer.

Wage tax certificate in Germany – by when is it issued?

You already know that without a wage tax certificate it is not possible to settle accounts with the German tax office, and you therefore cannot expect a tax refund from Germany. At this point, we can move on to another important aspect, namely the time of issuance of the wage tax certificate and by when it must be issued.

Employers must keep an eye on deadlines because they have until the end of February of the following year at the latest, to issue the wage tax certificate . However, it may happen that the tax card only arrives at the employee’s beginning of March, because it is a Sunday or a holiday.

An example of this was the year 2021, in which February 28 fell on a Sunday – therefore, the deadline for electronic transmission of the wage tax certificate was postponed to the next working day, March 1.

Electronic Lwage tax certificate 2025 – when will it come?

When can you expect an output of the electronic wage tax certificate for 2024? In this case, there are no changes due to a public holiday, so the tax card should arrive by February 28 at the latest. Sometimes employers issue it earlier – even before the start of the new year (usually in December).

Wage tax certificate Germany – explanation of the field numbers in the document

But let’s get to the heart of the article, namely what is actually on the wage tax certificate. You should know that although the document shows how much income you earned in the past calendar year and how much income tax you actually paid, it is much more than a simple annual certificate.

The reason for this is that it contains much more relevant information, such as your religious affiliation. Today we will discuss the most important elements of the German tax card, which are used to determine the actual tax situation of the taxpayer.

•     Column 1 Certification period/duration of employment relationship – these are the employment data in Germany. Consider that the number of working days is relevant for determining your tax liability, among other things (rules for taxation of residents or non-residents).

•     Column 3: Gross salary – Here, the entire taxable income of the employee for the year is indicated. This includes salary, bonuses, and other monetary benefits. Important: The tax system in Germany distinguishes between three types of tax: normal tax, the solidarity tax, and the church tax. You can find details of the paid contributions in columns 4, 5, and 6 of your tax card.
•     Column 4: Withheld wage tax – paid wage tax prepayment.
•     Column 5 Solidarity surcharge – Paid solidarity surcharge.
•     Column 6 Church tax – paid prepayment of the church tax. If the taxpayer has not indicated any religious affiliation, this tax is not paid, and therefore field number 6 remains empty in this case.
•     Column 16: Tax-free wages under double taxation agreement – this is tax-free income calculated under a double taxation agreement. This applies to taxpayers who are sent by a German employer to another country such as Poland. In this case, the taxpayer should obtain an income tax certificate not only from Germany but also from the other country where they worked during the relevant year..
•     Column 17 Tax-free employer benefits for travel between home and first place of work – this field contains information about the tax allowance for the employee’s travel between home and work.
•     Column 20: Tax-free meal allowances for external activities – this item concerns people who participated in domestic business trips (within Germany) during their work. This information relates to the flat tax, which can have a significant impact on potential tax refunds.

•     Column 21 This tax relief applies to employees who, for professional reasons, work in a different location and therefore maintain a second household. This can be both within Germany and abroad, for example, if the main residence is in Poland while the workplace is in Germany. The condition is that the center of life remains at the main residence and the double household management is professionally motivated. For employees in certain industries, other relevant deductions can be noted on the wage tax certificate. Particularly in the construction industry, roofing, scaffolding, and landscaping, the winter construction benefit is an important item. This levy is withheld from the gross salary and should be claimed as advertising expenses in the tax declaration.
• Column 22a and 23a. Employer’s and employee’s share of statutory pension insurance – these two fields contain the employer’s and employee’s contributions to pension insurance. The amount of these contributions can be deducted in the annual tax declaration.
•     Column 25 and 26 Employee contributions to statutory health insurance, employee contributions to long-term care insurance – this field contains contributions to health and long-term care insurance. These expenses also have a real impact on the tax statement and thus on the tax overpayment.
•     Column 28 – Contributions to private health and long-term care insurance or minimum precautionary flat rate – contributions to private health insurance and to long-term care insurance.

The electronic wage tax certificate in Germany – what else is in it?

As we have already mentioned, the wage tax certificate is not a simple document. Alongside the information described above, this document also contains more basic details, such as the following:

• Date of birth,
• Tax class,
• Tax identification number,
• Address and telephone number of the employer,
• Family allowances granted.

If your wage tax certificate is missing or incorrect

There are cases where employers do not issue a German tax card despite their obligation. What should you do in this case? If you have wage tax certificate not received your or possibly lost it, you should first contact your employer or the HR department of the company you worked for.

. The same applies if you come across incorrect information. If this is the case, call your employer and note the mistakes on your tax card. These in turn must be evidenced to the tax office.

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