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Crazy German Tax Law: Fünftelregelung (or how to pay 116% in income tax)

• yladiz 9mo ago
  > Let’s say you got a severance of 200,000€ at the beginning of the year. I guess if you're at a company for a super long time you'd potentially get a huge severance, but realistically who would actually get this amount? I get the theoretical possibility of this (and if we're being honest, if you're getting such a high severance the likelihood of moving to a job that pays "just" 50k per year is low), and maybe the author did get a 200k€ severance recently which is why they made this post, but it feels like more explaining a potential problem with the tax system that might also simply be solved by talking to a tax advisor?
  • vormals 9mo ago
    Author here. In my department alone I know of 5 people who decided to take the severence. Out of these five, three will take a year off. I don't think the scenario is that uncommon atm in Germany. Open to answer any questions btw
• netsharc 9mo ago
  Ah, Germans and moaning. The math isn't clear... but it seems all these sentences miss the phrase "over 5 years". I.e. earn 5 x 50K over 5 years, pay 58K extra taxes (in total) over those 5 years. > The overall amount of taxes paid with additional income: 94k€ > The overall amount of taxes paid without additional income: 36k€ > The difference between the two scenarios: 58k€ > You pay additional 58k€ taxes on a 50k€ salary. Not neat! Stop being so Protestant and take the [deity stopped existing 3 words ago]-damned sabbatical...
  • 9875325996435 9mo ago
    [dead]
  • vormals 9mo ago
    No, the "over 5 years" is just a theoretical justification for the Fünftelregel, not how it is implemented. You earn all the 200k in one year. You pay all the taxes in one year. I mean I kinda get that this is a first world problem. But isn't a marginal income tax rate of over 100% at least a little bit complain-worthy?