Germany: Confirmation of local income with EU/EEA certificate (also known as Bescheinigung EU/EWR)

Under certain conditions, people who live abroad and largely generate their income in Germany can be treated as subject to unlimited income tax in Germany.

The advantage of unlimited tax liability on the application is that - unlike limited tax liability - you can take advantage of all personal tax benefits as well as a whole range of family-related benefits. These include the tax deduction of special expenses.

Whether this is possible depends oncertain income limits

1. at least 90% of total worldwide income in a calendar,

or

2. foreign income that is not taxed in Germany must not exceed the basic tax-free allowance.

Basic non-taxable allowance for individual years:

There is a special advantage if you are a citizen of an EU/EEA member state and your spouse or child resides in an EU/EEA member state. In such cases you can also benefit from family-related tax benefits. This primarily includes the joint assessment with the splitting tariff or wage tax deduction according to tax class III. All you need is to have an EWR.

The EWR Bescheinigung is a form that is filled out and validated by your local tax office (based on your permanent residence) which confirms the amount of income from your home country. The German income is not stated there.

The forms, including the one for Non-EU citizens, are available in several languages and can be downloaded from our website.

Read also:

EU/EWR form for tax refunds from Germany, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg

What is the EU/EWR form or the Foreign Income Tax Return Confirmation and what is it for?

The EWR Bescheinigung is used not only in Germany but also in Belgium and Luxembourg.