Do I have to file at home while living in Germany?
It depends on residence, not on address — except for US citizens and green-card holders, for whom the answer is yes regardless of where they live. We settle the residence question first, because every other answer follows from it.
Is there a treaty between my country and Germany?
Possibly, and the version in force for your year is the one that matters — protocols and multilateral-instrument positions change what a treaty does without changing its name. We check it against the authority rather than a summary. Where no treaty applies, domestic relief takes over.
I own property in Germany. Where is the rent taxed?
In Germany, because that is where the property sits. The complication is the base: gross-rent withholding takes no account of mortgage interest, tax or repairs, so a leveraged property can face tax on turnover. An election onto net profit, where it exists, is what fixes that — and it has its own timing.
Will my German pension still be taxed in Germany if I live in Canada?
Usually some part of it is. A pension paid out of Germany is generally taxable at source whether or not the recipient still lives there, and the treaty between Germany and your country of residence decides how much of that taxing right survives and which state gives relief. The practical problem is rarely the principle. It is the payer: withholding is applied by an administrator working from the address and the status it holds on file, so an out-of-date record produces the wrong deduction and you then carry the correction into both returns. Send us the pension notices before you file on either side.
Do I need to file a German return if my pension is my only income?
Not always, and the answer depends on how the pension is taxed rather than on how large it is. Where a payer withholds a final amount at source and no other German income arises, there may be nothing further to file. Where the withholding is only a payment on account, or where more than one German payer is involved, a return is how the position gets settled. Non-residents are also sometimes assessed differently from residents on the same income, which changes the arithmetic rather than the principle. Bring us the payer statements and any correspondence you have had from the German authorities, and we will tell you which of those you are in.
Can I claim the German tax taken off my pension against my home tax?
Some of it, usually. Your home country gives relief for foreign income tax, not for every deduction a foreign payer makes, and a German pension statement puts income tax and social charges on the same page. If you simply total the column and claim it, the claim is overstated from the outset and the overstatement sits there until somebody asks about it. The work is to characterise each line first, then claim what is genuinely an income tax and treat the rest as what it actually is. Where the treaty limits what Germany may take, the excess is a matter for the payer or the German authorities, not for your home credit claim.
Why is church tax being deducted from my German pension?
Because church tax is collected through the same administration as income tax, from people recorded as belonging to a registered denomination, and that record follows you into retirement unless it is changed. It appears on the statement beside the income tax, which is why it is so often swept into a foreign credit claim. Whether a charge can be characterised as an income tax for credit purposes is a separate question from whether it was printed on the same document. If the registration no longer reflects your position, that is something to settle with the German authorities. The deduction is not corrected by the way you file at home.
Is my Canadian or American pension taxable in Germany once I retire there?
If you are resident in Germany, the starting point is that your worldwide income is in scope, pensions from abroad included. What the treaty does next depends on the kind of pension. Government service pensions, state social security and private arrangements are not always allocated the same way, so neighbours retiring to the same town can end up with different answers. Neither country's paperwork will work this out for you. We read the plan documents and the treaty article together and set out in writing which state has the first claim on each stream, and where relief is claimed, before you tell either administrator anything.
What happens to the withholding when a survivor takes over the pension?
The pension is administered on the survivor's own circumstances, not the deceased's. The class and any church-tax element attached to the original recipient stop describing the person now being paid, and the administrator applies whatever it holds on file for the survivor, which, if nothing has ever been filed, may be the least favourable assumption available to it. The practical step is to tell the payer in writing who the recipient now is and from what date, and to keep the reply. If the deduction has been wrong for some months, it is corrected through the payer and then reflected in whatever you file at home for those periods.
What does Form W-8BEN actually do?
It tells a US payer that you are not a US person and, where you are entitled, claims the treaty rate on the income they are about to pay you — so withholding comes off at the reduced rate rather than the statutory one. It goes to the payer or the broker, never to the IRS, and it expires, so a stale form is a common cause of over-withholding. Getting it in before payment is the difference between a lower rate and a refund claim. See Form W-8BEN.
Which kind of investor income is most exposed to double taxation?
Dividends from a foreign corporation. They have already borne corporate tax, the source country withholds on payment, and your residence country taxes the receipt — three layers, only two of which a credit can reach. Interest and royalties carry the same source withholding without the corporate layer. This is why the withholding article and the paperwork that reduces it matter more for portfolio income than for salary. See dividends, interest and royalties articles.
