Register and certify income tax

As an employer, you must withhold wage tax, the solidarity surcharge and, if applicable, church tax from your employees' wages every time they pay their wages.

You must calculate the amounts according to the personal taxation characteristics, which are stored in the database of the tax authorities as wage tax deduction characteristics (ELStAM) and must be retrieved by you.

At the end of each registration period, you must summarise the deduction amounts of all employed persons in a wage tax registration, transmit them electronically to the tax administration and transfer them there. You will not receive a tax assessment.

The registration period can be

• the calendar month
• the quarter or
• the calendar year.

This depends on the amount of tax to be paid.

At the end of the year, you must also transmit the data for the entire calendar year, print it out and give it to the employed person as an electronic wage tax certificate.

Attention: The wages of part-time employees and temporary workers may be subject to flat-rate taxation under certain conditions. If, for example, you employ a worker in a so-called mini-job, you must pay the flat-rate contributions for wage tax and health insuranceif, for example, you employ a worker in a so-called mini-job, you do not have to register the flat-rate contributions to wage tax, health insurance and pension insurance with the tax office, but with the German Pension Insurance Fund (Deutsche Rentenversicherung Knappschaft-Bahn-See ).