Flat rate withholding tax
Since the introduction of the flat rate withholding tax (Abgeltungsteuer) in Germany on 1 January 2009, all forms of capital investments are subject to tax at a uniform rate of 25% plus the solidarity surcharge; church tax is also deducted if applicable. All investment income that exceeds the general saver’s allowance is subject to this 25% tax. The general saver’s allowance is EUR 1,000 per person or EUR 2,000 for jointly assessed married couples/registered partners. Further information about the flat rate withholding tax is available under FAQ.
Exemption order
Your exemption order authorises ProCredit Bank to exempt your investment interest income from automatic deduction of the withholding tax. If an exemption order is not submitted, or if your interest income is higher than the legal maximum allowance, 25% investment income tax plus 5.5% solidarity surcharge and, if applicable, church tax will be deducted and transferred by us directly to the tax authorities. An exemption order can be submitted, changed or deleted by filling out the required form available online and sending it to us by post. Further information about the exemption order is available under FAQ.
To download the form, click here: Submit, change or delete an exemption order (German version, PDF, 596 KB)
Church tax
The procedure for deducting church tax was amended on 1 January 2015. We will now automatically transfer your church tax directly to the Tax Office (Finanzamt). You will therefore no longer have to apply to ProCredit Bank to do this for you.
In order to process the automatic transfer of church tax, we will enquire about each client’s church tax status once a year at the Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern). Would you prefer your church tax to be collected by the tax office (Finanzamt) instead of by us? If so, you can object to your church tax status being passed on to us. The appropriate application form for this can be found on the website of the Federal Central Tax Office (http://www.bzst.de/en) under the heading “Church tax” (Kirchensteuer). Further information about German church tax can be found in our FAQ.