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Also in the home office because of Corona?
Or even on short-time work?
You now have time to save money.
Here are six things that can noticeably relieve your household budget in the short or long term.
You just need to have them done before the end of the year.
And that's not too difficult.
1) Quick profit:
fill your oil or gas tank.
In 2021, energy will become more expensive because, firstly, value added tax will rise again and, secondly, a new CO2 tax will increase energy prices.
Currently, heating oil costs more than 40 cents again, but still only around half as much as in 2018. Liquid gas is just under 40 cents.
The CO2 tax alone costs you around 8 cents per liter of heating oil, plus VAT on the price.
Together, it quickly comes to 10 cents per liter - that's 300 euros for a 3000 liter tank.
A bit of a hurry is also required.
The best thing to do now is to just tell your supplier that he should deliver sometime before the end of the year.
Because if you don't give him a precise date, the delivery will be inexpensive because he can plan.
As soon as you want the heating oil or gas on a fixed date around next week, it can be a few cents more expensive.
And you should definitely compare prices in advance.
The difference between a cheap and an expensive dealer is 5 cents or more per liter in many regions.
2) Long-term gain: take
care of your retirement savings.
One of four variants will surely help you too.
a) If you have a
Riester contract
have: Are you paying enough to take the
full grant
with you?
You should pay in four percent of the 2019 gross pension insurance - minus the subsidy.
At 40,000 euros gross (2019) that would be 1,600 euros.
Minus the - let's say - 600 euros funding for two children and 175 euros for yourself, you would have to pay 825 euros for the whole of 2020.
There is something to consider with lower incomes: if you earned 20,000 euros part-time last year and the support of your two children is taken into account, you would actually only have to pay 25 euros for the whole year.
But the legislator says: 60 euros a year is the minimum.
So you have to increase accordingly in order to take the 775 euro grant with you.
By the way: If you have children or drop out of funding because you no longer receive child benefit, you should also adjust your own contribution.
Make sure that the necessary payments are received on your Riester account this year.
b)
You can save 552 euros per month
for your future
company pension
this year and now you do not have to pay any taxes for it.
For half of this you do not have to pay any social security contributions (health insurance, pension, long-term care and unemployment insurance).
If your contract is good, take advantage of the opportunity.
With the Christmas bonus you can top up your payments this year.
If your boss does something, all the better.
With new contracts, the boss has to help.
That is also correct, because he saves salary when you top up.
The reason for this is as follows: As soon as you put your salary in your company pension, you no longer have to pay any social security contributions on this amount - consequently, your boss saves half of his social security contributions too.
c) Oh yes, of course you can also make
provisions for old age
without relying on tax advantages and subsidies.
Instead, a lot of flexibility and, in the long term, possibly significantly higher returns.
The best way to do this is to use market-wide, globally investing ETFs.
If you have money left over at the end of the year, you can also place the money in your deposit as a one-off payment and do something for old age.
d) The same applies to the
self-employed
who provide for old age with a good Rürup contract.
Contracts with low costs and high potential returns are good.
Ideally, with the option of changing providers, if the management of the old provider no longer works in years or decades.
Particularly lucrative: instead of paying a lot of taxes before retirement in successful years, you can invest more money for old age with a Rürup contract.
The tax burden as a pensioner is probably much lower - and at the same time you currently benefit from significantly lower taxes.
Because with the pension expenses (including the contributions to the statutory pension insurance), contributions of up to a total of 25,000 euros have a tax effect.
90 percent of this is deductible as special expenses.
In particular, the self-employed can reduce their tax burden enormously by paying into a Rürup contract and / or making voluntary contributions to the statutory pension insurance until the end of the year.
Incidentally, twice the maximum amount applies to married couples.
Speaking of marriage: With the Rürup contract you are even more closely connected than with your partner.
And quickly for 50 years in the payment phase and retirement phase.
So look for a good contract: So check out who is forever committed.
3) Romantic win:
marriage is a good keyword anyway.
Marriage is usually a good idea financially.
And then: the faster, the better.
If there are large differences in income, spouse splitting saves 5,000 euros or more in tax - every year.
And no matter what time of year you get married, the benefit is valid for the whole year.
The jostling in front of the registry office is currently limited.
It is winter and Corona is inhibiting the party spirit.
But you can also celebrate the big party - hopefully with a vaccine and a real party.
The other way around: if you separated as a couple in the course of 2020, think twice about trying to reconcile with the approaching Christmas.
Because if you stop living apart, you can have another tax assessment together for 2021.
And benefit from the tax savings together.
4) Gain in quality of life:
So, we had energy, pension provision and family.
That leaves the two big blocks of spending around the house, which you can turn into tax savings blocks until New Year's Eve.
Let your craftsman quickly beautify the bathroom, paint the facade or install an elegant wooden staircase.
You can claim up to 6,000 euros a year as craftsman costs against the tax and get back up to 1,200 euros for this.
If you haven't exhausted that, go ahead.
The 20 percent repayment was once invented to combat illegal work, i.e. invoices without VAT.
Until New Year's Eve you only pay 16 percent VAT, but get 20 percent of the labor costs back from the tax office.
If the sum is not enough for the craftsmen, there is still the option of declaring so-called household-related services in the tax for up to 20,000 euros and also getting 20 percent back.
It is important that you have transferred the money.
Many of the bills that you normally state there may not have been incurred due to Corona.
But maybe there is still work that needs to be done urgently.
The catalog of possible costs with which you can save taxes is very long.
5) Gain in peace:
Do you have any money left at the end of the year?
This year, for example, it will be the same for all those who have been spared short-time work or job loss, but have not been able to go on vacation.
Then use this money for a special repayment on the real estate loan.
Some people still pay more than three percent interest on an eight or nine year old real estate loan.
You can save them.
As standard, a special repayment of up to five percent per year is provided for in many building finance contracts.
Some contracts also include the option to repay ten percent of the loan amount separately each year.
And if there is a lot of money in the account, push the next special repayment in January.
That saves the interest for the whole of 2021.
6) And interest gains:
Last but not least, a hot tip for a six percent investment with the tax office.
If you have not yet submitted your voluntary tax return for 2016, you should do so by December 31st.
Most people who don't have to file a tax return can save a lot of taxes.
This is one of the reasons why the state spares them the tax declaration.
And because the state has actually owed you the tax refund since the end of 2016, it even has to pay default interest from 15 months later - in this case from April 2018.
This is 0.5 percent per full month, i.e. 6 percent per year.
If you are still entitled to a refund of 1,000 euros for 2016, this will have turned into almost 1180 euros with interest by the end of 2020.
The check from the tax office won't come in time for Christmas.
But the interest rates will continue to run in January 2021.
Anticipation is also a great joy.
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