Category: Money, Banking & Tax
Choose the procedure you need
All procedures (5)
- Basiskonto: your legal right to a basic bank account in Germany
- German tax ID (Steuer-ID): how it reaches you and what to do if you lose it
- German tax returns: when filing is compulsory — and the deadlines
- Germany’s six tax classes: who falls into which, and why
- Kindergeld in Germany 2026: amount, residence rules and application
About this section
The financial side of life in Germany, taken from the federal statutes: the tax ID (Steuer-ID), how it reaches you automatically after registering your address and what to do if you lose it; the basic bank account (Basiskonto) as a legal right under §31 of the Payment Accounts Act — it covers asylum seekers and people on tolerated stay, and the bank must decide within ten working days. Alongside them the six tax classes and which one applies to you, when a tax return is mandatory and when it is optional but profitable, and child benefit (Kindergeld), which §62 ties to your residence permit type, not your nationality.
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German tax returns: when filing is compulsory — and the deadlines
You are not obliged by default — but five situations reverse the rule, and one of them refunds you.
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Germany’s six tax classes: who falls into which, and why
Your class is not a free choice — the statute assigns it, and real choice exists in one place only.
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Kindergeld in Germany 2026: amount, residence rules and application
Entitlement turns on your residence permit, not your nationality. Which permits qualify, which do not, the exceptions for students who work and for refugees — and why the tax ID comes first.
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Basiskonto: your legal right to a basic bank account in Germany
Banks are obliged, not free to choose. Who is entitled, the ten-business-day deadline, and why a verbal refusal at the counter is not a decision you have to accept.
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German tax ID (Steuer-ID): how it reaches you and what to do if you lose it
Issued once for life, sent automatically by post after your address registration. Where to find it if the letter is gone, how to request it again — and why "instant online" offers are a scam.