Health insurance, pension, protection, investing, and the refunds most people never claim. 15 pages in English with 2026 figures. Enter your details and download it instantly.
Most guides explain the German system. This one shows you where money gets lost in your case, and what it is worth in euros. Every chapter ends with a number.
Six deductions, six institutions, two of them are settings you can change.
Deadlines, four open years, and why your first part-year is a refund.
1,230 € is given to you. Everything above it has to be claimed.
Up to 12,000 € a year plus flights home, if your centre of life is still in India.
Support for parents in India, treated as a deduction. Almost nobody claims it.
GKV or PKV. Easy to enter, hard to reverse, and it changes when family joins.
8,112 € tax-free through your employer, and one product that punishes leaving.
What the statutory system does not cover, and how German tax treats your ETFs.
What to request before you deregister, and what happens to your pension record.
Arjun in Munich and Priya in Berlin, line by line. Plus a 16-point self-check.
This is what our financial advisers work on with you: health cover, pension, protection and investing, with one foot in Germany and one in India.
Cheaper privately in year one, but family cover is free only in the statutory system. The decision most often made backwards.
Thanks to the Germany-India social security agreement, insurance periods add up and a German pension can be paid to India.
Up to 8,112 € a year can go in through your employer. Strong where the employer adds well above the minimum, weak where they add exactly the minimum.
Move permanently outside the EU, including to India, and the allowances you received have to be repaid.
Statutory cover pays far below a professional salary and needs five years of contributions. In your first years in Germany you may not be covered at all.
Before you sign a long contract, ask what happens to it if you move to India in six years, and what it costs to stop paying in.
The checklist also explains the tax positions that matter most when your life is split between two countries, so you can claim them yourself or take them to a Steuerberater. We are financial advisers and do not prepare tax returns.
2022 to 2025 are still claimable. Your first part-year in Germany is almost always a refund, often four figures.
Commute, home office, laptop, German course, Blue Card fees, the move itself. Typically 500 to 1,060 € back a year.
Request your pension record, tax certificates, deregistration and health cover confirmation. Much harder to get once German post stops reaching you.
The largest single deduction available to Indian professionals in Germany, and the one most often left unclaimed. German tax law calls it doppelte Haushaltsführung: two households because your job is in one place and your life is in another.
You run a household in India that is your centre of life. Owned or rented in your name, or your family home where you hold the household.
You carry a meaningful share of its running costs. A traceable, regular transfer is the evidence. Occasional gifts are not.
Your German accommodation exists because of the job and is within reasonable reach of your workplace.
| What becomes deductible | Detail | Ceiling |
|---|---|---|
| Your German accommodation | Rent, service charges, electricity, broadcasting fee, cleaning. Actual cost, capped per month. | 1,000 € / month 12,000 € / year |
| Furnishing the German flat | Bed, wardrobe, kitchen equipment, lamps. Treated separately from the monthly cap. | On top of the cap |
| Trips home to India | One family trip home per week at the actual travel cost, in practice the flights you genuinely take. | Actual cost |
| Meal allowance, first 3 months | 28 € per full day for the first three months after the second household starts. | up to 2,520 € |
Be honest about this one: correctly claimed for a full year, this single position can exceed everything else combined. Incorrectly claimed, it gets refused in full. If your spouse and children live with you in Germany, it normally does not apply.
If you support parents or a spouse living in India, those payments can be deducted as an extraordinary burden (außergewöhnliche Belastung, § 33a EStG). Most people send the money for years and never mention it on a return.
| Example: both parents in India | Amount |
|---|---|
| Reduced ceiling, mother | ~3,000 € |
| Reduced ceiling, father | ~3,000 € |
| Recognised total | ~6,000 € |
| Your marginal rate | ~38 % |
| Cash back per year | ~2,280 € |
Illustrative. The ceiling depends on the recipient's own income and the country group published by the Finance Ministry.
The habit that makes it work: the same amount, on the same day of the month, by bank transfer, with a reference that says what it is. Cash handed over on a visit is not accepted.
Priya and Arjun both work in Germany and both pay their taxes correctly. The difference is not cleverness. It is which positions apply to their life, and whether anyone told them.
Commute, home office, equipment, literature and a German course add up to 2,312 €, of which 1,082 € sits above the flat allowance.
Tax saved: ~390 € per year. Her arrival year produced a further 1,400 € on its own.
Second household for his Munich flat and three trips home, plus commute, equipment, German course and Blue Card fees: ~5,400 € back. Support for both parents adds ~2,460 €.
Cash back: ~7,860 € per year. Two of his earlier years are still open.
Illustrative figures for constructed cases. Marginal rate, church tax, federal state and family situation change the result.
The decisions that carry real weight are the ones where two countries meet: your health cover, your pension, your protection. None of those can be decided from a PDF.
15 pages, 2026 figures, with a 16-point self-check. Mark it from your documents, not from memory.
By phone or video, in English. Health cover (GKV or PKV), pension and company pension, protection, investing and your five-year plan.
You receive the points that matter most in your case. No sales pressure, no contract signed on the call.
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