The V0901 states that it can be confirmed by a notary of the country of residence. Question on the refund itself: Do I need to declare this as income in my US Tax prep? I have lived in Germany for less than 5 years, can I get the refund? It's easy! Hello, I put an estimate of my US contributions to social security for the start date and end date until I moved to Germany but did not send any supporting documentation. Questions got answered within hours and I felt taken care of and informed during the 3 months it took to get the payback. It is worth putting efforts to get your money back. http://www.deutsche-rentenversicherung.de/Allgemein/en/Navigation/englisch_index_node.html. I had asked them this questions but can't find the response email. Customers applying for an income tax refund from Germany get an average refund amount of €1020. ", 6.3) "Are you currently liable to pay contributions to a state pension insurance scheme outside Germany?". Form V0901 (Main claim for refund of pension contributions), http://www.deutsche-rentenversicherung.de/Allgemein/de/Inhalt/5_Services/04_formulare_und_antraege/_pdf/V0901.html?cms_resultsPerPage=5&cms_templateQueryString=V0901+, 2. Expect some referrals. I am now definitely a #Happy australian camper . Whole process was quite lean and its just a matter of time before you get your money back . We will send you the result within 24 hours. Refunds are made to anywhere in the world and do not preclude you from coming back to Germany at any point in the future to visit or to work here again. Taxback.com customers get an average pension insurance refund of €3032 from Germany. Have you paid any social security contributions in a Member State of the EU, the EEC, in Switzerland or in an agreement state or completed state insurance periods outside Germany? Everything thus far has been in alignment with this post. http://www.deutsche-rentenversicherung.de/Allgemein/en/Navigation/03_leistungen/03_beitragserstattung/beitragserstattung_node.html, (All queries were sent to this email address. And with that and the original Anmeldung/Abmeldung can we simply mail everything to the Berlin address listed above? Sign up for a new account in our community. Let's go, get your money back – German pension refunds for expats of all nationalities. There is a lot of misinformation out there (probably from brokers trying to charge fees for performing such services). Anmeldung / Abmeldung, Lohnsteuerbescheinigung, LohnKonto from firm), - DRB can take 6-8 weeks to respond and provide refund (my refund was processed in 4 weeks after DRB received my application), Country of Residence: USA (after leaving Germany), Application for pension refund: After about 30 months of leaving Germany, Refund Received: About 4 weeks after application in my German bank account. at the top right of the Meldebescheinigung zur Sozialversicherung? Germany Pension Refund Non-EU citizens can claim back their German pension contributions (about 9.5% of salary) 2 years after leaving Europe, if they were paid into pension fund for a period under 5 years. Really liked Chris as he is very service oriented. Welcome Expats: Refund money paid to the German Pension Insurance. You should email DRB to confirm in any case. If you only worked for a short time in Germany, you may also be entitled to a refund. If you worked in Germany (European and non-European nationals) you might be eligible for a refund of your pension contributions if 24 months have passed after you left the country.Different rules apply depending where you currently reside and if you have contributed for more or less than 60 months.. . Check if any other doc can be sent (put tick mark in application) (e.g. 6.4 Do you currently pay voluntary contributions to a state pension insurance fund under the law of another Member State of the EU / EEA or Switzerland? For 6.1, the US is listed as an agreement state. On this website https://www.germany.info/us-en/service/07-Pension/pension-refund/905438 it says we need it. Thank you! Really liked Chris as he is very service oriented. I don't recall the rationale but below were my responses. I'll update if/when I get a response. The amount you receive depends on how long you contributed for, what your salary was, and at what age you retire. If so, then I believe the insurance record HAS been issued, and the insurance number (Versicherungs-Nr.) Or only within Germany? I've managed to navigate the process of getting my refund from Germany (lived in Berlin for 4 years, now back in the US) and recently received my funds in my account. Before 2018 the contribution amount was slightly higher and it changed over the years. If I can base my experiences with german income taxes and dealing with the Finanzamt, I would (foolishly?) Is this possible? You can expect super friendly German native to assist you during the refund process. A lot of people provide different answers so it is best to reach out to DRB. Chris took care the entire end-to-end communication with the German Pension Office. Actually what is this? I thought this is the same as Versicherungsnummer / Insurance number top left column of the V0901 form? Form A1312-00 (Form in case refund is to be sent to a bank in USA or Canada), http://www.deutsche-rentenversicherung.de/Allgemein/de/Inhalt/5_Services/04_formulare_und_antraege/_pdf/A1312.html?cms_submit=Los&cms_resultsPerPage=5&cms_templateQueryString=A1312-00, - If you have a German bank account then provide the IBAN number in Form V0901 (I requested a refund to my ComDirect Bank Account), - For form V0901 - the Kennzeichen / Code does not need to be filled out, - I did not need Form A9060 "Lebens- und Staatsangehörigkeitsbescheinigung" / "Certificate of Life and Citizenship". - US and various other non-EU citizens can claim back their German state pension contributions if they contribute in Germany for less than 5 years (60 monthly contributions). FAQ - Pension/Retirement Contributions I worked in Germany for several years but am moving home and will not be working in Germany again and I want to receive a full payout of the amount I paid into the pension/retirement fund. after retirement age (67+years). They will respond to emails in English too.). Isn't this the Versicherungs-Nr. So far the internet has not been of much help. We provide you pension-refund estimate based on your duration of stay and gross salary. So Indians living in countries like. Check if you are eligible with our Free Refund Check. Waiting up-to April 2016 is not required. I thought that was not possible due to bilateral social welfare recognition agreements. Expats get an average pension refund of 6.020 €. What prevents them from walking away with 100% of the refund amount? But in any case, I emailed meinefrage@drv-bund.de and I also emailed one of those agencies who say they will do this for a fee. I'm a US citizen. Share this post . I understand carbon copied version is fine, are those documents needed to be certified as true copy? Would they send a letter to an international address? Please contact DRB and the German consulate in your country of residence to confirm the forms required. I will follow up once I submit, what exact documents I sent, and the outcome. By the way, do you think it's a good idea to use one of those agencies? He managed also situations in which the officials messed up my banking details. Thanks to his persistence with the officials and patience with myself I received the money. has come into force effective from 01.05.2017, so it is not possible to get pension refund for 5 years and more(60 months and more) pension contributions. Thanks for the update. Fields marked with * are required information. And that was that they were overall happy to help. Your actual refund amount can be higher than the estimate depending when you have worked in Germany. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. my first ever paycheck? I suspect this would cover the "carbon copies" and the "certificate of total contributions number"... but what is the "INSURANCE CARDS NUMBER"? The German Tax calculator is a free online tax calculator, updated for the 2020 Tax Year. Pension contribution refunds After the initial check, the Refund team helped me through each step of the application. If you think applying for a German tax refund sounds like too much hard work, we’re here to tell you it’s not. Use our A-Z Refund Service and let us deal with German bureaucracy. assume that the Rentenversicherung would be similar. -"Carbon Copies from SS Record Booklet...", - "certificate of total contributions number". There is a lot of misinformation out there (probably from brokers trying to charge fees for performing such services). Was skeptical at the beginning about this service but a Skype call convinced me about the authenticity. Once you have been out of Germany for at least two years, we can apply to get all your pension payments refunded. Any help you can provide is much appreciated. If they needed something, you'd get a letter, and plenty of time to submit the documents. I am also asked for the dates. To get the exact figure look at your annual Lohnsteuerbescheinigung, I believe row 22 shows your contributions. We are also happy to inform you that it is not required to go to German embassy to get documents signed. Reclaiming payments into German pension after moving to the U.S. Did anyone send a copy of their US Social Security card, or a Social Security statement or anything like this? My plan is to basically do what Chris recommended, and I figure if there is an issue, I will get a very official letter telling me why they couldn't process the claim. Worked in Germany as Expat and did not know that it is possible to apply for the refund of pension contributions. I am trying to fill out V0901 and the top of the form asks for a "Kennzeichen". All the best! I did as you suggested and just sent it off. Worked in Germany as Expat and did not know that it is possible to apply for the refund of pension contributions. 10% is about right. German Insurance Card - Is this not the Meldebescheinigung zur Sozialversicherung? If you have worked in Germany, you may have paid German Pension Insurance. Is the record complete and correct? START FREE REFUND CHECK (function() { var qs,js,q,s,d=document, gi=d.getElementById, ce=d.createElement, gt=d.getElementsByTagName, id="typef_orm_share", b="https://embed.typeform.com/"; if(!gi.call(d,id)){ js=ce.call(d,"script"); js.id=id; js.src=b+"embed.js"; q=gt.call(d,"script")[0]; q.parentNode.insertBefore(js,q) } })(), Outstanding Service and Partnership with returned expats. Does that mean I have to provide dates for my first Social Security contribution, i.e. Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada / Quebec, Chile, India, Israel, Japan, Kosovo, Morocco, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, South Corea, Tunisia, Turkey, Uruguay, United States" are all member states, and I believe you'd have to mark YES if you've contributed to social security in any of these nations. Contributions to Social Security - Please double check the list... "Australia, Bosnia- Please send your query using right side form to provide you estimate of your pension refund amount by email. Link to post Share on other sites. Result: I received 2.3 years of pension payments back. 3. So what should I answer here? Thanks! Add up all the amounts in row 22 for all the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung and you should come to a very close estimate of your refund. -- No, since I didn't have any contributions within any EU country. People who paid for < 5 years, can get employee contribution as refund.