To create an allowance in the ELStAM(electronicwage tax deductioncharacteristics), an application for a wage tax reduction must be submitted to the tax office in whose district you currently live
Note
The characteristics relevant for the wage tax deduction procedure, such as tax class, factor if applicable, number of child allowances, other allowances, but also the church tax characteristic, are stored by the tax authorities for all employees in a central database. The tax authorities use this data to provide employers with the income tax deduction details for electronic retrieval. Further information on this can be found at www.elster.de.
If documents can be submitted as proof of the various expenses, you should enclose these with the application for wage tax reduction.
You can find out which allowances are granted under the question " Which costs can I claim as an allowance?
The deadline for submitting the application begins on October 1 of the previous year for which the tax-free allowance is to apply. It ends on November 30 of the calendar year in which the allowance applies. This means that the application for income tax relief for 2024 can still be submitted until November 30, 2024. After this date, a tax reduction can only be taken into account in the income tax assessment.
When applying for an allowance for the first time for the calendar year 2024 or when increasing the allowance valid for the calendar year 2023, the "Application for income tax reduction 2024" (main form) and the corresponding attachments to the income tax reduction application ("Appendix for income-related expenses", "Appendix for special expenses / extraordinary expenses", "Appendix for household-related expenses / energy measures") can be downloaded from My Elster(direct link for registered users) and sent electronically to the tax authorities. The "Instructions for applying for income tax reduction" can be used as an aid for completing the form. Anyone applying in 2024 for at most the tax-free amount that was calculated for the 2023 calendar year, or who only wants to have the number of child allowances taken into account as in the previous year, only needs the official form "Application for wage tax reduction 2024" (main form).
You can also obtain printed copies of the application forms from the Forms Center of the Federal Ministry of Finance (to print out) or from the Service Center of your tax office.
You can apply for an allowance for two calendar years