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eBrief, Berlin (2026)

18/09/2022

Hi lovely friends! 👋 In this post, I'll talk about what you can consider step zero in your property purchase journey, and that is to get a rough idea of how much you can afford. This will help you modify your search and will come in handy when negotiating the price.

To know what you can afford, first answer a few questions.
The first is whether or not you want to pay for the property just with you own money. For most of us this is not an option. And even if you can do it, it is not necessarily recommended to do so. Why? Because the interest rates (even after the recent increases) are usually lower than a modest return on another investment, for instance in the stock market or buying another property that you will rent out.

So let’s say to finance your purchase you need to borrow money, most probably from a financial institution. In this case, there are a few factors to consider. First, how much of your money (so-called Eigenkapital) you like to use. Although the exact number might change, it is usually recommended to pay around 10-20% of the purchase price out of pocket to get a favorable interest rate. Next, you need to know how much monthly mortgage payment you can afford. Try to be a bit conservative and think about possible changes to your future expenses and/or income.

Having these in mind, use an online mortgage calculator to figure out how much you can afford. One of Germany mortgage brokers is Interhyp. They offer a calculator you can use to see what loan conditions (interest rates, etc) are available. You can change the purchase price, your Eignekapital, yearly return rate, and more, and see how monthly payments and interest rates change. I’ll leave a link to this calculator in the comments.

The broker I worked with and CANNOT recommend enough is Hypofriend. Their experts all speak English fluently, and they provide an online calculator too that adapts to your personal situation. Check out their page

Now that you know what you can afford, you are ready to start looking for that dream property. In the next post, I’ll talk about the resources you can use to search the properties on the market. Till then! 👋

12/09/2022

Friends, today we start an exciting series of posts on buying an apartment/home in Germany. I went through the process a few years ago, and although a lengthy one, it is extremely rewarding, and financially speaking 🤑 makes a lot of sense. I learned a lot then and kept learning, and would like to share some of that information with you in this series. I truly hope this can help you when you decide to buy your place 🙂

So why does it make sense financially to buy a property? Because compared to some other European countries, it is still very much affordable to buy an apartment in Germany. At the same time, the property prices are increasing quite fast. This means that you would have a sizable return, should you choose to sell your property after a few years. Since we are talking about capital gains, let me mention one major difference between a property you will live in yourself and one you’ll rent out. In both cases, if you sell the property for a profit, the gain is tax exempt only if a certain amount of time has passed since your purchase. This is only 2 years if you live in the place yourself, and increases to 10 years if you are renting out the apartment.

If you are not yet convinced, consider the fact that the yearly property tax is quite low in Germany, especially when compared to the US or Canada.

Besides, yearly rent increases are usually higher than the mortgage interest rate. This might still be true despite the recent increase of interest rates.

Last not least, when you own your home, you can make changes to the place’s interior space, such as different paint for the walls or a complete redesign of the kitchen, as you wish without needing to ask for permission. Isn’t that exciting? 🤩

All right, was that compelling enough? 😃 Do you still have questions? Are you not sure whether or not you can afford to buy? Then keep an eye for the following posts where we dig a bit deeper into this topic, especially the financial implication of owning a property. Till then 👋

Useful words: Selbstnutzung (Literally “self use”, used when you buy the property to live in), Kapitalanlage (investment - buy to let), Darlehen (loan), Grundsteuer (property tax)

08/09/2022

So you’ve been living in Germany for some time and would like for your family or friends to visit your new country? 😍 Then this post is for you! 💡

If your friends and family need a visa to come to Germany, check what documents the visa office in their country of residence is asking for.

In case they ask for a financial commitment from the host, look for the office in your city that issues the related document, called Verpflichtungserklärung. Fill in the form the office provides, and attend your appointment with your last three salary slips and German residence card (work permit, blue card, …) along with a copy of the passport of your guest. These documents should be enough, but to be on the safe side, you can take your work contract and a print of your bank statement. In the office, they will fill in another form based on the one you give them, stamp, and sign it.

Pro tips:

- The form you fill in as a host only asks for the duration of visa, but not whether or not you are asking for a multiple entry visa (Visum für mehrfache Einreise). Ask the office’s employee to mention it in the form they give you. There is no guarantee that the visa officer will issue a multiple entry visa, but without asking for it, they most probably won’t.
- Some visa offices will only accept the original Verpflichtungserklärung (and not a scan). Keep that in mind when scheduling a visit.
- Make sure that there is not more than 6 months between the time you get the letter and when your friend or family member have their visa appointment.
- Make the commitment only for people you know well. If for any reason your visitor refuses to leave Germany, you are committed to cover all their expenses.
- The commitment is valid for two years.
- When applying for a visitor visa, it is important that the applicant proves their ties to their country of residence. Documents such as work contract, proof of home or business ownership, and bank account statements would facilitate the visa process.

Hope you find this post useful, and soon reunite with your loved ones! 🙂💜

08/09/2022

So you’ve been living in Germany for some time and would like to your family or friends to visit you in your new country? 😍 Then this post is for you!💡

If your friends and family need a visa to come to Germany, check what documents the visa office in their country of residence is asking for.

In case they ask for a financial commitment from the host, look for the office in your city that issues the related document, called Verpflichtungserklärung. Fill in the information form the office provides, and attend your appointment with your last three salary slips, your German residence card (work permit, blue card, …) along with a copy of the passport of your visitor. These documents should be enough, but to be on the safe side, you can take your work contract and a print of your bank statement. In the office, they will fill in another form based on the one you give them, stamp, and sign it.

Pro tips:

- The form you fill in as a host only only asks for the duration of visa, but not whether or not you are asking for a multiple entry visa. Ask the office’s employee to mention it in the form they give you. There is no guarantee that the visa officer will issue a multiple entry visa, but without asking for it, they most likely won’t.
- Some visa offices will only accept the original Verpflichtungserklärung (and not a scan). Keep that in mind when scheduling a visit.
- Make sure that there is not more than 6 months between the time you get the letter and when your friend or family member have their visa appointment.
- Make the commitment only for people you know well. If for any reason your visitor refuses to leave Germany, you are committed to cover all their expenses.
- The commitment is valid for two years
- When applying for a visitor visa it is important that the applicant proves their ties to their country of residence. Documents such as work contract, proof of home or business ownership, bank accounts would facilitate the visa process.

Hope you find the post useful and soon reunite with your loved ones! 🙂

05/09/2022

Ever felt confused by all the rows and abbreviations in your paycheck? 🤔 Never totally understood where almost half of your salary goes? 😐 In this post, I’ll shed some light on the topic 💡

You might have noticed that each paycheck contains info. for the current month as well as the yearly total up to the current month. That’s why sometimes you would be asked for your December pay slip as it provides a complete overview of your yearly earnings.

The largest deduction from your salary in the income tax (Lohnsteuer). See our post on income tax to learn more about this. There are at least two other types of tax depending on your situation. The first one is the so called Solidaritätszuschlag, usually abbreviated to Soli. This tax is used to improve the economy of former eastern Germany, and it’s around 5.5% of the income tax. After the recent changes, only the high-earners are required to pay this tax and everyone else is exempt. The other one is the church tax (Kirchensteuer), which you will pay only if you’d like to benefit from the church services.

Here are the other most important deductions:

1. Pension payment (Rentenversicherung, RV): A mandatory, so called “gesetzliche”, payment into the public pension fund. The employee and the employer both pay around 9% of the monthly salary as pension contributions. The payment for each party is capped at around 600 euros per month.
2. Unemployment insurance (Arbeitslosenversicherung, AV): 2.4% of salary paid equally by the employee and the employer.
3. Care insurance (Pflegeversicherung, PV): If you are in need of special care, provided by either professionals or your family members, this insurance will cover some of the expenses. The fees are around 3% of salary paid by the employee and the employer.
4. Health insurance (Krankenversicherung, KV): This will be deducted from your salary only if you are publicly insured (see our post on health insurance). In that case, you and your employer will each pay around 7% of the gross monthly salary. KV is capped at a maximum of around 350 euros per month.

All right, that’s it for now 🙂 Save the post & share it with your friends! 🙏🏻

04/09/2022

Friends, how are you all doing? Settling more in Germany as days go by, I hope? 😊

When talking about income tax in one of the earlier posts, I mentioned that there are other types of tax you need to know about. One of those we talk about today is the so called radio TV tax.

Every apartment/household is obliged to pay these fees that are to fund public channels such as ARD and ZDF (since you’re paying for this anyway, you might as well watch them to improve your German 😉 - refer to my post on learning German). You have to pay this tax even if you do not have a TV at home. The argument for this is that every household nowadays has at least one device with internet connection and as these channels offer their content online as well, you can watch TV without owning a TV set.

In fact, as soon as you register yourself at a new apartment (Anmeldung), they will send you a letter asking you to pay the tv radio tax. The letter will be sent even if someone else is already living in and paying the tv tax for that apartment. If this is the case, send them a letter and explain that the tax is already being paid for that apartment and you do not have to pay extra. The fees are around 17 euros per month. You can choose to pay monthly or quarterly. The easiest option is probably to give direct debit authorization so that the fees are deducted automatically from your bank account, removing the risk of you forgetting to pay.

Useful words: Rundfunkbeitrag (radio/tv tax), Rundfunk (radio), Fernseher (TV).

Do you have any tips related to this topic? What are your thoughts on radio tv tax? I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment here or send me a message!

Till later! 👋

29/08/2022

After talking about German learning in the last post, it’s about time that we look at German exams (Telc or Goethe) and certificates. It is good to have the certificate when applying for PR; It’s also required for certain fields of study.

The best tip I can give you here is to become familiar with the exam structure as much as possible, and work on sample exams. Both Telc and Goethe institutes provide free samples on their websites. There are books with several more samples, and lots of content on youtube, instagram, etc. that teaches you how to prepare, what techniques to follow, what structure/words to use for the writing and speaking sections of the exam, and more. In short, you will not run out of resources here 🙂

Second tip; Register for the exam well in advance, because 1. spots might fill up, 2. it gives you a concrete deadline to work towards.

I took the Telc B1 exam, but looked at Goethe samples as well. They both have reading, listening, writing, and speaking sections. Telc also has the “Sprachbaustein” section, consisting of multiple-choice questions focusing on grammar and vocabulary. Although the exact content changes, the general format of each section is well defined. For instance in Telc’s reading section, there is always a part that asks you to match a list of titles with a list of short texts (or to match different ads with different people whose needs are described in the question). This means if you practice with enough sample exams, you can easily pass the exam.

Have you ever taken any of these exams? Or are you preparing yourself for one now? What techniques have you used? What is the best exam preparation tip you heard? I’d love to know those! Feel free to share them in the comments!

Bis später friends! 👋

25/08/2022

Hey friends! Hope you’re having a great week. Today we talk about German learning.

In some cities in Germany, you can easily go through daily life without knowing German. But even then, knowing German makes life much easier and fulfilling; If you speak German, your interactions in government offices would go much more smoothly. As we explained in the PR post, it enables you to apply for your PR a whole year earlier. It would also come in handy if/when you want to apply for a German citizenship.

There are many different approaches to learning a language. You gotta figure out what works the best for you and your schedule. My own German learning journey started with Duolingo. After moving here, I registered for intensive courses, which meant 3 hours of class per day, 5 days a week. I did this for 8 months (with a couple weeks of break here and there). With that, I went from zero to B2 level and got my Telc B1 certificate.

Speaking of language levels, A1-A2 means beginner to intermediate, B1-B2 intermediate to advanced, and C1/C2 is fluent. To fast track your PR, you need B1.

Couple of tips:

Almost everyone would tell you German (and especially its grammar) is super hard. Ignore them all, and just focus on your goals. You probably don’t remember this, but I bet learning your mother tongue seemed hard at first too 😉

Immerse yourself in German. Read everything you get your hands on. Read the news in metro. Read the street and shop signs. Follow great pages such as for daily lessons. Listen to German music and podcasts (even if you don’t understand anything, it is still helpful). Have the German TV on at home, even if you’re not actively watching, the brain/ear would pick up and become familiar with the language.

Speaking of TV, here are some good shows: Turkish fur Anfänger, Dark, Deutschland 83 (& 86), Tatortreiniger, Ku'damm 56 (& 63).
Well, I might need another post just to talk about German shows 😉

Have you started learning German or are planning to? If yes, drop me a comment. I’d love to hear about your experience and plans 🙂

In the next post, I’ll write about Telc and Goethe German exams. Till then, take care 👋

22/08/2022

Friends, in the last post we looked at income tax. As promised, in this one we talk about tax declaration.

In certain situations, for example if you are self-employed, have more than one employer, or a side business, it is mandatory to file taxes. Even if none of these is true, it is recommended to file as you might have overpaid taxes or have significant reductions that result in a refund.

The deadline for filing is May 31st of the year after the year you are filing for. If a tax advisor files for you, the deadline extends to end of December. In the past few years, because of delays caused by pandemic, the deadlines have been extended even further.

To file your taxes, you can also use online services/apps such as Taxfix or Steuergo. I’ve never used these, but know that they cover most standard cases. If your tax situation is rather complicated, for instance having an income source outside Germany, it is possible that you can’t file using these apps.

Let’s look at a general list of deductions you can declare. Depending on your personal situation you might have more deductions; Any expense you occur in order to earn your income, such as training costs, books you purchase related to your work, certain amount per each km of commute between home and work. If you have a home office, any expenses you pay for that room (portion of rent, internet & electricity bills, etc.). Note that you should not have anything else except office furniture inside that room for it be eligible for a deduction. Your bank account fees, charitable contributions, and the first 800 euros paid to you as dividends in case you have any investments are also tax deductible. Try to keep receipts for all these expenses. On top of those, there are two important documents you have to keep in your records; First Lohnsteuerbescheinigung, which is the income tax certificate sent by your employer every year. Second the Steuerbescheid, which is the tax decision/info sent by Finanzamt after they review your return.

That’s it from my side 🙂 You have any tax tips you like to share? Please leave them in the comments!

Useful words: Steuererklärung (tax declaration), Steuerberater (tax advisor).

19/08/2022

Hi friends, Hope you all are doing great. In this post, we’ll talk about income tax in Germany.

There are other taxes, such as radio/tv tax or property tax, that we’ll cover in future posts.

Understanding income tax helps you realize how much your take-home salary would be. Or how much your gross salary should be to cover your expenses.

Tax calculations: Income tax is calculated as a percentage of your gross salary. The percentage itself changes depending on your total yearly income.

Important point that some folks miss is that the income tax is progressive in Germany. Let me throw a few approximate numbers at you to make this a bit more clear (the exact numbers depends on your marital status, number of kids, etc). The first 10000 euros of your annual income is tax free. From the rest, the rest up to 58000 of yearly income is taxes at rates increasing from 14% to 42%. If you earn even more, the rest (anything more than 58000 euros/year) would be taxed at 42%. As you see, the calculation is not as simple as multiplying a fixed percentage with your income. If you don’t want to do the calculation by hand, there are tons of tax calculator available online. Just search for “income tax calculator Germany”.

Tax ID and tax number: You might remember from my post on health insurance that when you register with a health insurance you can ask them to apply for your tax ID. This ID is specific to you and you only and will never change. There is, however, a tax number that depends on your current address. Your tax office also changes with your home address. You'll find both of these numbers on your payslip or letters sent by the tax office.

As well as the base income tax, there are other deductions from your salary. Here’s a general list, which might vary depending on your personal situation: Church tax, solidarity tax, pension insurance, health insurance, care insurance.

In the next post, we’ll look at tax declaration. Keep an eye out for that one...

Useful words: Steuer (tax), Lohnsteuer (income tax), Brutto (gross salary), Netto (net salary), Steuer ID (tax ID), Steuernummer (tax number), Finanzamt (tax office), Kirchensteuer (church tax).

15/08/2022

Hi friends, In this post, we’ll talk about the German permanent residency (PR). I hope you find it helpful, and share it with anyone who would benefit from it.

With a PR, you can stay in Germany as long as you like without an extra visa/permit or even a work contract. For many of us, including myself, this offers a great peace of mind.

Normally after 5 years of working in Germany, you are eligible to apply for PR.
If you hold a blue card (see my earlier post on blue card), you can apply after only 33 months with A2 German level. Even better, if your German level is B2, this shortens to only 21 months.

The process differs slightly in different cities, but the basics are the same.

In Berlin, you email all your docs to the immigration office and ask for an appointment. Make sure to write your email in German. Once they process the application, you’ll be given an interview appointment. This appointment is usually nothing more than you going to the office, paying the fees, and providing any other doc they ask for. If all goes well, you receive a PR letter at the end of the appointment. It then takes a few weeks for the card to be ready! 🥳

List of the important needed docs: Proof of pension payment for the required time, work contract, last 6 salary slips, copy of the health insurance card, language certificate, copy of passport & blue card/permit, biometric photo, application form.

Pro Tips:
1. German proficiency: It is totally possible to reach the B1 level after 21 months with 2 lessons/week. You can take an official German exam or show your level in the interview. To be on the safe side, I just took the exam. I’ll soon write a post on German learning and these exams. Keep an eye for that one.
2. Proof of pension payments: You can order it online: www.eservice-drv.de/SelfServiceWeb, and receive the report by mail. Or you can make an appointment with the deutsche Rentenversicherung office of your city and pick up the report in person.

Useful phrases: Niederlassungserlaubnis (permanent residency), beantragen (to apply), Rente (pension), Landesamt für Einwanderung (immigration office), Rentenauskunft (pension information), Termin (appointment).

06/08/2022

If you don’t already have a liability insurance, get yourself one as soon as possible.

This covers you for all the damages you cause to other people (third-party insurance).

The premium is usually quite low, less than 100 euros per year, but in case you cause any damages it will save you a lot of money.

The most extreme example I read about in favor of purchasing a liability is the following. If this doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what will 😉

Imagine that you’re just walking down the street while checking your cellphone (as we all usually do). Without realizing it, you step over to the bike path of the sidewalk and a biker coming towards you maneuvers to the side not to hit you. In their attempt, the biker hits a car that is parked on the side and injures themselves badly. The injury results in a type of disability that prevents them from working for the rest of their life. In this scenario, you will be responsible to pay their medical bills, for their pain and suffering, and for their life expenses. This would easily lead you to bankruptcy if you don’t have a liability insurance.

So don’t wait any longer. Go ahead and purchase one today.

You could compare different plans and their coverage on [check24.de](http://check24.de) (see the second photo of this post)

Useful words: Versicherung (insurance), Haftung (liability), Pflicht (duty, responsibility), Haftpflichtversicherung (liability insurance)

eBrief

18/09/2022

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