Taxes After the Wedding: Tax Class, Joint Return and Splitting

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Two separate things change: the tax deducted from your salary each month, and the tax you finally owe for the year. The first depends on your tax class, the second on the tax return.

Tax class IV: what happens automatically

When you marry, both of you are put into tax class IV.¹ You don’t apply for it. The registration office passes the date of the wedding to the tax authorities, and the change takes about two weeks. You get class IV even if one of you has no job. Your employer receives the new class electronically.²

This only works if both of you live in Germany. After a wedding abroad, the switch is not automatic: send the marriage certificate to your tax office with the application.³ Which certificate the authorities accept: married abroad: is your marriage valid in Germany?

The married classes require that both of you are taxable in Germany as residents and don’t live apart for good.⁴ A spouse living in another country changes that — see spouse living abroad below.

IV/IV, III/V or IV with a factor: which suits you

The tax class decides how much tax your employer deducts each month. It does not change your tax for the year. That is set in the tax return, where both incomes are added up. A class that suits you keeps the monthly deductions close to that final figure.³

IV/IV assumes that you earn roughly the same. If you do, the monthly deductions come close to your final tax.³

III/V is built for couples where the partner in class III earns 60 percent and the partner in class V 40 percent of the combined salaries. If your split is different, you may have to pay tax back after the year. That is why couples with III/V must file a tax return.³ The partner in class V sees much less net pay each month, because class V has no tax-free allowance at all. Class III gets it twice.³ Both of you have to apply for III/V.⁴

IV with a factor keeps each partner’s own tax-free allowance in class IV. The tax office then calculates a factor below 1 from both salaries. It lowers each partner’s deduction in line with the splitting effect, so the monthly tax comes close to the final bill.³ Both of you apply, and the factor applies until the end of the following year.⁵

Net pay in each class: the income tax calculator with the married setting shows your monthly salary after tax in classes III, IV and V. What every tax class means, from I to VI: tax classes in Germany.

Expecting a baby? Parental allowance (Elterngeld) is calculated from your net pay before the birth. A change of tax class only counts there if the new class applied for most of the months the allowance is based on.⁶ So a late switch to class III doesn’t raise the allowance. Your estimate: parental allowance calculator.

When the change applies, and the 30 November deadline

• The month of the wedding: the automatic class IV applies from the first day of the month in which you married.⁷ Changing it right away, for example to III/V, is also possible from the first day of that month.³
• Later changes: a switch you apply for later applies from the first day of the month after your application. It can’t be backdated.⁷
• Deadline: for a change to count in the current year, your application must reach the tax office by 30 November.⁷ After that, the new class starts in January.
• How to apply: the form “Antrag auf Steuerklassenwechsel bei Ehegatten” (application to change tax classes for spouses), signed by both of you and sent on paper, or online through ELSTER, the tax administration’s online portal.³

The joint tax return for the year of the wedding

As a married couple, you choose each year between a joint return and two separate assessments. The year of the wedding counts in full: if you married at any point in the year, you can file jointly for the whole year.⁸ If you make no choice, the tax office assesses you jointly.⁸

A tax return is compulsory if both of you earned a salary and one of you was in class V or had a factor for at least part of the year.⁹ With IV/IV, the wedding alone doesn’t make a return compulsory. It is often worth filing anyway: class IV deducts tax as for a single person, so the splitting effect only shows up in the return.³ How the return works for employees: tax return in Germany.

The splitting benefit, with three examples

In a joint assessment, the tax office adds your taxable incomes together, halves the total, works out the tax on that half with the normal tariff and doubles it.¹⁰ This is the splitting procedure (Ehegattensplitting). Because the tax rate rises with income, splitting can lower your tax or leave it unchanged. It never raises it.

What it means in practice: each of you has a tax-free allowance of €12,348 a year.¹⁰ Together you have €24,696, and with splitting a partner without income passes their allowance on.

Three things the examples show:

• One earner, one without income: the largest saving. The couple pays tax as if each partner earned €30,000.
• Different incomes: a saving of several hundred euros. The couple with €50,000 and €20,000 pays exactly what the couple with two incomes of €35,000 pays — the total counts, not who earns it.
• Equal incomes: no saving, because halving the total changes nothing.

Your own figures, with gross salary instead of taxable income: the income tax calculator.

Separate assessment: when each of you files alone

Either spouse can choose separate assessment. One partner’s choice is enough.⁸ Each of you is then taxed on your own income at the normal tariff, without splitting. Costs such as insurance contributions or medical bills count for the partner who paid them. On a joint application, they are split half and half.¹¹

On the tariff alone, separate assessment is never cheaper than a joint return. Other parts of your return can change the result in special cases, so compare both options before you file — with tax software or a tax advisor.

Spouse living abroad

Spouse in another EU or EEA country: if you are a citizen of an EU or EEA country and live in Germany, your spouse can be treated as taxable in Germany on application, even though they live elsewhere in the EU or EEA. That opens the joint return with splitting and the married tax classes.¹² Conditions apply to how much your spouse earns abroad, so ask your tax office before you apply.

Spouse outside the EU or EEA: the married classes and the joint return require both spouses to be taxable in Germany as residents.⁴ A spouse who lives in a non-EU country usually isn’t. Until your partner moves to Germany, you are usually taxed like a single person. Ask your tax office whether an exception applies to you. For a partner moving here on a spouse visa: spouse visa for Germany. Everything else that changes after the wedding: the checklist after the wedding.

Part of getting married in Germany. After the wedding: after-the-wedding checklist · your surname after marriage.

Frequently Asked Questions