The Riester pension is a state-subsidised old-age insurance. In addition to the subsidies, you can claim the contributions made as special expenses in your tax return.
When do my contributions to Riester have an effect on taxes?
Whether your contributions are taken into account as special expenses depends on whether the tax savings are higher than the state allowance. This is why the tax office uses the favourable tax assessment (Günstigerprüfung) to determine what is best for you. You do not need to submit a separate application for this - the favourable tax assessment is carried out automatically.
If the tax savings are higher than the state allowances, the special expenses deduction applies. You can then claim your payments up to a maximum amount of 2,100 euros as special expenses. In this case, the allowances received are deducted from the taxes saved. Singles without a child are the main beneficiaries of the special expenses deduction.
However, if the tax savings are lower than the allowance, the special expenses deduction does not count.
How can I declare my Riester pension contributions in the Taxfix app?
You can enter Riester pension contributions in our app in the "Finances" category. Please first enter the data from your annual payslip in the "Income" category so that you can enter the complete details of your Riester pension in the app.
When you enter your Riester pension, the app also asks you for the amount of your income from the previous year. This includes your gross annual salary and any wage replacement benefits you received (e.g. parental or unemployment benefit I). This question appears because it is used to determine the amount of your entitlement to the state Riester allowance, which is also considered a deductible special expense.
For parents, our app also asks which parent is entitled to the child allowance of the Riester contract. In general, this is due to the parent to whom the child benefit is paid. However, if both parents have a Riester pension, this entitlement can also be transferred. If you are in doubt, you can contact the provider of the contract; the provider is also responsible for applying for the child allowance.
Why do my Riester contributions not appear on the submitted tax return?
Riester contracts are only tax-deductible if you have given your consent to the provider for data transmission. The contributions made are then reported electronically by the provider to the tax authorities. Since 2019, the Riester contributions made are therefore no longer part of the tax return, as the data are already available to the tax office and are automatically taken into account.
Your Riester contributions are therefore not specifically listed on the submitted tax return, which we make available to you in the form of a PDF document in the app. However, you can see that there is a Riester contract under the heading "Anlage AV" on the PDF document.
In our app, the contributions are therefore only entered because they may be relevant for calculating your tax result.