Apply for a certificate for income tax deduction

As a rule, your employer will deduct income tax for you on the basis of the electronic income tax deduction characteristics (ELStAM). In some cases, however, it is not possible to retrieve the ELStAM, e.g. because

• Reporting data is incorrect,
• your employer does not participate in the ELStAM procedure,
• you have not (yet) been allocated an identification number, although you have unlimited tax liability and are subject to registration in Germany,
• you belong to a group of people who cannot yet participate in the ELStAM procedure because they are not subject to registration in Germany:
  • Employees with unlimited tax liability who do not have a place of residence (e.g. homeless people, prisoners)
  • Employees with limited tax liability within the meaning of § 1 para. 4 EStG who apply for an allowance in the income tax reduction procedure
  • Employees with extended unlimited tax liability within the meaning of § 1 Para. 2 EStG
  • Employees with unlimited tax liability within the meaning of Section 1 (3) EStG who apply to be treated as employees with unlimited tax liability

The responsible tax office will then issue you with a "certificate for wage tax deduction" upon request, which can be used as a substitute by your employer as a basis for wage tax deduction (so-called substitute certificate). If your employer does not have such a certificate, they must deduct income tax according to tax class VI.