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From the beginning of 2021, the solidarity surcharge will no longer apply to most income taxpayers. It will only be levied if the income tax to be assessed as the basis of assessment for the solidarity surcharge exceeds the amount of €16,956 for single assessment or €33,912 for joint assessment. Above these limits, there is a "mitigation zone" in which the solidarity surcharge is gradually brought up to the full rate of 5.5%. The mitigation zone prevents persons whose income tax liability exceeds the exemption limit by only a few euros, for example, from being subject to the full solidarity surcharge rate immediately.

The lump sums for people with disabilities have been doubled as of 01 January 2021. For employees for whom a lump sum has already been taken into account in the wage tax deduction, this doubling should be stored in the database of electronic wage tax deduction characteristics (ELStAM), which is maintained by the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt). As a result, the increase in the lump sum should be automatically taken into account in the monthly salary payment from 01 January 2021 by deducting less wage tax

For agricultural holdings, the new state land tax law links the amount of land tax to the natural fertility of the soil. The data required for this purpose have already been collected for many decades by land valuation committees, which are made up of equal numbers of experts from the tax authorities and practising farmers.

The Federal Ministry of Finance has published a BMF letter on the tax incentives for energy efficiency measures in buildings used for own residential purposes. The BMF letter explains individual issues relating to the application of the tax reduction regulation pursuant to Section 35c of the German Income Tax Act (EStG) and the regulation on the determination of minimum requirements for energy efficiency measures in buildings used for own residential purposes.

On 1 January 2021, various changes will come into force with regard to wage and income tax for people with disabilities. It is planned to double the lump sums for people with disabilities and, for the first time, to grant a lump sum for people with disabilities with a degree of disability of at least 20 and to waive additional eligibility requirements for the granting of a lump sum for people with disabilities with a degree of disability of less than 50.

Fraud SMS "tax debts" in the name of the BZSt

Since November 2018, citizens have been able to use the tax chatbot of the Baden-Württemberg tax administration for questions relating to tax returns. The virtual assistant answers questions from all areas of tax law around the clock.

The Second Corona Tax Relief Act of 29 June 2020 was published in the Federal Law Gazette on 30 June 2020 and came into force on 1 July 2020. In order to take into account the higher care expenses for single parents in times of Corona and the expenses caused by this, the relief amount for single parents in tax class II was increased from currently 1,908 euros for 2020 and 2021 to 4,008 euros and thus more than doubled. The increase amount for each additional child of 240 euros remains unchanged.

Due to the change from the document submission obligation to the document retention obligation, there are currently still uncertainties in dealing with documents.

Your tax return is largely processed electronically and paperless. In principle, you should therefore not initially submit any vouchers when filing your tax return and should only submit them in individual cases if requested to do so by the tax authorities.

The following information sheet is intended to assist you in dealing with receipts. It lists circumstances in which the tax office is likely to request supporting documents and in which, as an exception, submitting them with the tax return may optimise the procedure

General information on the implementation of the data protection requirements of Articles 12 to 14 of the General Data Protection Regulation in the tax administration.