One pays income tax on all the income for one calendar year – in this case, it will probably correspond primarily to the income from the work as an employee. If one is employed by a company, one does not even have to trouble oneself with the question of income tax at first, as the employer will automatically deduct the income tax from your gross wage/salary in the form of wage tax (Lohnsteuer) and transfer it to the tax office.
The employer also transfers the “solidarity surcharge” (Solidaritätszuschlag) and – if one is a member of a religious community which levies it – the “church tax” (Kirchensteuer) as well. Pension, health, nursing and unemployment insurance are also deducted from the wages and paid by the employer. One can see how much the employer transfers to the account and how much the net salary amounts to every month from the wage or salary slip.
Filing for taxes can be advantageous for students too. The negative tax can be used later to get a tax rebate. Several items like tuition fee, travel allowances, mobile bill etc can also be claimed!
Some interesting links for more information on taxation include:
- One can use the Net and Gross salary using the Wage calculator [Link]
- Information on taxation in Make-it-in-Germany [Link]
- Expatica.com: Income tax in Germany [Link]
There are several websites and softwares that can help file for taxation