What is the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung and Why Do You Need It?
Your employer sends this document every year. Here's what it contains and why it's the most important document for your tax return.
Every year your employer gives you a document called the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung, usually together with your December or January payslip. It sums up what you earned in the past year and how much tax was already taken from your salary. For most employees it is the single most important document for the tax return.
What is the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung?
The word means “wage tax certificate”. In Germany, income tax on salaries is deducted every month by your employer and paid directly to the tax office. At the end of the year your employer reports the totals electronically to the Finanzamt and gives you a printout or PDF of the same data. Employers have to do this by the end of February of the following year.
What does it show?
The form has numbered lines. You don't need all of them, but these are the ones that matter most:
- Your tax ID (Steuer-ID) at the top, which links the data to you
- Line 3: your gross salary for the year (Bruttoarbeitslohn)
- Line 4: the income tax already deducted (Lohnsteuer)
- Lines 5 to 7: solidarity surcharge and church tax, if you pay them
- Line 17: tax-free payments from your employer for your commute, such as a Deutschlandticket
- Lines 22 to 27: contributions to pension, health, care and unemployment insurance
Why do you need it?
Your tax return starts with these numbers. The Finanzamt compares the tax you already paid (line 4) with the tax you actually owe once your deductions are taken into account. If you paid more than you owe, the difference comes back to you as a refund. Without the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung, nobody can check whether the right amount was deducted.
Because your employer already sends the data to the Finanzamt, it usually appears pre-filled in ELSTER. Still, keep your own copy and check it: mistakes in the tax class, the number of months worked or the commuting subsidy do happen.
Several jobs or a new employer?
You get one Lohnsteuerbescheinigung from every employer you worked for during the year. If you changed jobs in June, you will have two; if you had a second job in tax class VI, you will get one for that job too. All of them belong in the same tax return, and with a second job in tax class VI, filing is mandatory.
What if it's missing or wrong?
If you haven't received it by March, ask your employer or the payroll department; they have to give it to you, also after you have left the company. You can also log in to ELSTER and see the data your employer reported. If a number looks wrong, tell payroll and point it out in your tax return, so the Finanzamt can use the correct figures.
Tip: keep every Lohnsteuerbescheinigung for at least four years. You can file voluntarily for up to four years back, and you'll need the numbers for each year.
With Flinktax you can upload a photo or PDF of your Lohnsteuerbescheinigung. We use the numbers for your return and ask you only for what is still missing.
