If you are married, you will automatically be assigned to tax class IV upon marriage. This also applies if only one person in your household receives wages.
Alternatively, you can jointly apply for a different tax class combination, for example III and V or tax class IV with a factor.
You can also apply for the less favorable tax class I if you do not want your employers to be informed of your change in marital status. Alternatively, you can request a block on the retrieval of your electronic wage tax deduction features (ELStAM). In this case, your wages will automatically be taxed according to tax class VI.
More Information
Publisher
Hamburg
Last update or date of publication
Contact
The government service telephone number 115 – your point of contact for questions related to the federal, state and local.
Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 18:00 (and beyond these times in some regions).
Call 115 nowGovernment service telephone number calls are charged at local rates.
- Form "Application for change of tax class for spouses" with tax identification number and signature of both spouses (see links).
If you got married in Germany, you do not need any further documents.
If you got married abroad:
- Proof of marriage, for example a properly issued foreign marriage certificate.
Preconditions
- As a married couple, you are subject to unlimited income tax liability in Germany.
- This is the case if your residence or habitual abode is in Germany.
- They do not live permanently separated.
Hints
For ELStAM matters, you can contact any regional tax office in Hamburg.
To change your personal status data in the residents' registration office (for example, marriage, establishment of a civil partnership, birth), please contact the responsible registration office.
Since the law introducing the right to marriage for same-sex couples came into force on October 1, 2017, you can no longer enter into new civil partnerships in Germany.
Since that time, same-sex couples can marry each other and are therefore on an equal footing with opposite-sex couples.
You can continue an existing civil partnership in its current form or convert it into a marriage.
fee
- Advance payment
- no
Basis for legal action
Section 39e paragraph 3 of the Income Tax Act (EStG)
https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/estg/__39e.html
Legal Remedies
objection
Related Links
- Block or unblock income tax deduction featuresCurrently this link is only available in german
- ELStAM, employee, factor methodCurrently this link is only available in german
- Electronic payroll tax deduction features: General informationCurrently this link is only available in german
- Re-notarization of a marriage abroadCurrently this link is only available in german
Deadlines
- If you have married, you will automatically be assigned to tax class IV. This automatic change takes effect from the first day of the month in which you married.
- A change of tax bracket takes effect from the beginning of the month following the application. You cannot change your tax bracket retroactively.
- If a change in tax class or the application of the factor procedure for tax class IV is to take effect in the current calendar year, you must submit the application no later than November 30th of the respective year.
Processing time
no