In recent months, the German Federal Government has adopted numerous measures to alleviate the burdens caused by the development of energy prices. These include the energy price allowance (Energiepreispauschale - EPP), to which employees, pensioners and students, among others, are entitled. We answer the most important questions.

Who receives the energy price allowance (EPP)?

Entitled are

• Persons who received income from agriculture and forestry, from commercial enterprises, from self-employment or as an employee in 2022. This also includes mini-jobbers, voluntary exercise leaders or supervisors and volunteers in the federal or youth voluntary service. Employees in an active employment relationship who have received income replacement benefits (such as sick pay, short-time allowance, parental allowance or maternity allowance) also receive the Energiepreispauschale.
• Senior citizens who are entitled to a pension from the statutory pension insurance or to pension benefits as of 1 December 2022. Whether the pension is limited or unlimited is irrelevant. Included are thus recipients of old-age, reduced earning capacity and survivors' pensions. If one receives several pensions, the EPP is only paid once.
• Students and vocational students who were enrolled at a German higher education institution or registered at a vocational college as of 1.12.2022. 

How much is the EPP?

Students receive a one-off payment of 200 euros.

All other eligible persons receive 300 euros.

Does the EPP have to be taxed?

Yes, the Energiepreispauschale usually has to be taxed and is subject to your personal tax rate. In the case of employees, tax is already paid through the employer. 

However, the payment is not taxed if you only have a mini-job. As a student, you also receive the payment tax-free. 

How is the energy price allowance paid out?

As an employee, you have usually already received the EPP with your September 2022 salary. You can also tell if you have received it by the capital letter E on your annual payslip (Lohnsteuerbescheinigung) for 2022. 

Pensioners will receive the one-off payment in December 2022 via the pension payment offices. The payment will be made to the bank account to which your regular pension payments are made. If you receive your first pension at the end of December, you will receive the EPP in January 2023. 

Students must apply for the EPP separately. The Government and the Federal States have developed an online platform for this purpose. There you will find everything you need to know about the EPP for students:

200 Euro Einmalzahlung für Studierende, (Berufs-)​Fachschülerinnen und Fachschüler

For other eligible persons, the EPP may be paid out by submitting the 2022 income tax return. This may be the case, for example, if you did not work in September 2022 or only had a mini-job. In this case, you simply submit the tax return for the year 2022. The tax office will automatically take the EPP into account. If applicable, the tax office will then pay it into your account as soon as the tax statement is ready. A separate application is therefore not necessary - simply submit your tax return. Of course, this is also possible with Taxfix! 

Please note: Unfortunately, the Taxfix app is not yet able to map certain tax cases - these include income from agriculture and forestry, from business operations and self-employment, as well as civil servant pensions. If this applies to you, you can find more information on the EPP and the modalities of payment on the website of the Federal Ministry of Finance, among others.

Do I have to declare the energy price allowance in my tax return?

As an employee or pensioner, you do not have to enter the EPP separately in the 2022 tax return. It is already part of your annual payslip (Lohnsteuerbescheinigung) or your total pension received, the values of which you declare via the pension statement. There is therefore no separate field for the energy price allowance in the tax return.

Students will only receive the energy price allowance of 200 euros in 2023. As this payment is tax-free, it does not have to be declared in the 2023 tax return (to be submitted from 2024). 

If you do not receive the EPP until you file your 2022 tax return in 2023, you do not have to declare it in the 2023 tax return, as the taxation already takes place with the 2022 tax return.

Is the EPP taken into account in the Taxfix app calculation?

As an employee or pensioner, you received more money in the month the EPP was paid. The lump sum is part of your salary or pension and is entered as such in the Taxfix app and taken into account in the tax result. However, it is not shown separately in the calculation. 

If you claim the EPP by filing your 2022 tax return, it will be automatically taken into account by your tax office and paid to you. You will find information about this on your tax statement (Steuerbescheid) that you will receive from your tax office. In the calculation of the Taxfix app, the EPP is also taken into account in these cases if you enter the corresponding information in the app.