The Income Tax Certificate summarises the income tax data of an employee to be transmitted after the completion of the Lohnkonto for the respective certification period. The employer fundamentally transmits the data electronically to the tax administration and provides the employee with the electronic Wage tax certificate as a printout or electronically.
What is a wage tax certificate?
Upon termination of an employment relationship or at the end of the calendar year, the Wage account concluded by the employee. Based on the records kept there, the employer prepares the electronic Wage tax certificate.
It contains the legally required information on the period of employment and certification, as well as on wages, withheld taxes and other values relevant to wage tax.
What details does a Wage tax certificate contain?
The information to be transmitted is determined by law and by the officially prescribed data set. Depending on the specific circumstances, this includes in particular:
- Details of employer and employee
- the certification period
- Wage tax deduction details
- Gross wage
- retained Income tax
- Solidarity surcharge and where applicable Church tax
- certain tax-free components of remuneration or components of remuneration that require special certification
- certain contributions and subsidies for Social security and retirement provision
Which individual fields are actually completed or transmitted depends on the respective employment and payroll circumstances.
What role do ELStAM play?
The electronically transmitted data also includes the relevant characteristics for income tax deduction. These particularly include those used in Employment relationship ELStAM.
The electronic Wage tax certificate statement shows the Wage tax deduction details relevant to the last wage payment period in accordance with official regulations.
Payroll record and Wage tax certificate – what is the difference?
The Payroll record is the employee-related wage tax record that is maintained during the calendar year or Beschäftigungsverhältnisses respectively.
By contrast, the Wage tax certificate is derived from the legally required records upon completion of the Lohnkonto and transmitted to the tax administration.
In short: The Payroll record contains the ongoing payroll tax records – the Wage tax certificate transmits the required data for the certification period from them.
By when does the Wage tax certificate need to be submitted?
The electronic Wage tax certificate must generally be submitted to the tax authorities by the last day of February of the following year.
The employer must provide the employee with the electronic Wage tax certificate in an officially prescribed format as a printout within a reasonable period or make it available electronically.
