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Shopping mile in Berlin: more in your pocket
Photo: Carsten Koall / dpa
A lot of things change in the New Year that affect your wallet.
Here you will find 22 important points that will have a positive effect on your account balance.
We'll discuss the negatives next time.
More money for many:
More minimum wage I:
You get more wages, at least if you are one of the more than seven million minimum wage recipients in the country.
On January 1st, your wages will rise from EUR 9.60 to EUR 9.82 per hour.
Your employer has to pay that.
More minimum wage II:
On July 1, the minimum wage increases again, then to 10.45 euros an hour.
Just for comparison: In the building cleaning trade, the collectively agreed minimum wage will rise to 11.55 euros on January 1st.
More minimum wage III:
And if the Ampel-Coalition sticks to its program, the minimum wage will soon increase again in one fell swoop to 12 euros per hour.
The limit for tax-free and social security-free mini-jobs is to rise from 450 to 520 euros at the same time, and for mid-jobs with a lower tax burden to 1600 euros per month.
More net wages:
If you work, you will probably get
more net wages
even without a wage increase.
The basic tax-free allowance, i.e. the subsistence level for which you do not have to pay any taxes at all, increases from 9744 euros per year to 9984 euros.
The income limits for all other tax rates also rise by an average of 1.17 percent.
More pension in the future:
You will receive more pension for your payments into the pension insurance.
In 2021 you had to earn 41,541 euros a year for one pension point in the west and pay contributions for it, in 2022 it will only be 38,901 euros, the German Pension Insurance Association told me this week.
If you continue to earn the same amount and pay in the same amount of contributions, you will simply get more pension in the end.
For one pension point there is currently a monthly pension of 34.19 euros.
Lower contribution:
For high earners in the west, the salary limit up to which they have to pay into the pension insurance also falls from 7100 euros to 7050 euros per month. In the east you have to pay contributions to the pension insurance up to a salary of 6750 euros in 2022. Both values should be aligned by 2025.
Immediately more pension
: You will receive a lot more pension from July. Originally it should be almost six percent more in the east according to the calculation of the pension insurance and over five percent in the west. But last year the pensions were not cut despite Corona. What the pension fund has paid on top, it should now be able to offset. Therefore, the pension increases in the summer will only be between four and five percent, announced Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD).
Earning extra:
As an early retiree, you will still be able to earn a lot in 2022. Instead of 6,300 euros annual additional earnings as before Corona, up to 46,060 euros additional earnings are allowed in 2022 without reducing the pension. If you have reached your regular retirement age, you can earn as much as you like anyway without reducing your pension. However, you always have to pay taxes for the additional earnings.
More retirement provision:
You can deduct more of the money you put aside for old age for tax purposes.
In 2022, the deductible share of pension expenses will rise to a maximum of 24,101 euros for single people;
for married couples and registered partners up to 48,202 euros.
From 2023 onwards, all pension expenses should be deductible, the traffic light coalition wants.
More wages for apprentices
: apprentices now receive at least 585 euros in their first year.
That doesn't sound like a lot for trainees at Lidl, who were promised around 1,000 euros in their first year of training in Berlin as early as 2021, but for many young hairdressers, 585 euros is an improvement.
In the second year of the apprenticeship, the wage must be over 700 euros.
More savings allowance:
The savings allowance should increase by a quarter to 1000 euros per person per year.
Twice as much for married couples.
Distribute your allowance optimally among your accounts so that you don't even have to pay taxes on interest and dividends.
Corona bonus:
If you get a corona bonus, you can have it paid out without tax or social security contributions until the end of March.
Continue home office flat rate
: The home office flat rate should also continue to apply in 2022.
So you can claim five euros per day for a maximum of 120 working days in the home office in 2022.
But please do not set the flat rate for distance and home office flat rate for the same working days.
Less EEG surcharge:
The EEG surcharge for financing the energy transition for electricity is falling, from 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity to 3.72 cents.
For a large household with a consumption of 4000 kilowatt hours, this can mean cost savings of 100 euros per year.
According to the plans of the traffic light coalition for consumers, the EEG surcharge will even be completely eliminated in 2023.
However, many electricity providers have announced that they want to increase the electricity price for other reasons.
More maintenance:
The parents of separated children have more entitlement to maintenance.
The maintenance for the youngest increases only minimally: for children between six and eleven years of age by 4 euros to at least 455 euros and for the older ones by 5 euros to 533 euros.
More for some:
More child allowance:
A little more money is also available for poorer families with children. The child allowance in addition to child benefit increases for them by 4 euros to 209 euros per month. Families with low incomes who do not yet receive Hartz IV receive child allowance.
More housing benefit:
Such poor households are often also entitled to housing benefit.
More than 600,000 households are already receiving it.
However, up to two-thirds of eligible households, i.e. more than one million households in addition, do not make use of the entitlement.
Often it is more than 100 euros a month.
In addition to the housing benefit, there is already an automatic heating cost allowance between 14.40 and 25.80 euros for recipients of housing benefit.
The Federal Ministry of Construction announced shortly before Christmas that it should rise sharply in the summer.
This is also urgently needed, because in 2022 many tenants will have to make hefty additional payments for the expensive heating year 2021.
more on the subject
Interactive income calculator: Who is in the top ten percent in Germany - and where you standBy Florian Diekmann
More money when moving:
If you have to move for professional reasons, you can claim slightly higher costs in the future: EUR 886 instead of EUR 870. In addition, the partner receives another 590 euros. The possibilities for tutoring children have been significantly improved. You can claim tuition costs of up to 1881 euros in 2022 after moving with the corresponding invoices, in 2021 it was just 1160 euros.
Longer e-car premium:
The state and car companies want to pay buyers high premiums for pure e-cars and plug-in hybrids in 2022 as well. When you buy a new electric car, you can collect up to 9,000 euros in bonuses, with plug-ins up to 6750 euros. Two things are important: there is
less premium
for more expensive cars
.
And your plug-in car must have an electric range of at least 60 kilometers.
More care allowance:
If you have to go to a care home, the long-term care insurance will pay five percent of the co-payment that you otherwise have to pay in addition to the care rate of up to 2005 euros in the first year. The co-payment, which also includes rent and meals, is on average more than 2100 euros per month. Five percent of this is more than 100 euros a month, 25 percent in the second year then more than 500 euros, 40 percent in the third year more than 800 euros and 70 percent from the fourth year even 1400 euros.
More company pension:
If you have been putting your salary aside for a company pension for years - this is called converting in the jargon - then your boss will have to add something from 2022. If you convert a salary of 2400 euros a year, at least 360 euros, he has to add 15 percent. The company saves almost 20 percent of social security contributions with every euro you put in your company pension, so the 15 percent subsidy is only fair. Perhaps your boss has already been adding more, but if not: the 15 percent is due from now on.
More depreciation:
Do you have a small company and buy computers and other IT technology on a regular basis? In addition, a solar roof and a wall box for the employees' e-cars are to be installed in 2022? According to the will of the Ampel-Coalition, you should be able to offset the costs as a super write-off against the company's profits (p.164 of the coalition agreement).
Oh yes, and if you have found another nice change for your wallet that comes in 2022, but is not listed here and affects a lot of people, then write to me!
It's easy to do by email.
However, if you want to use a letter or postcard, pay attention to the increased postage: for normal letters it increases from 80 to 85 cents, for postcards from 60 to 70 cents.
The address is:
Finanztip, Tenhagen, Hasenheide 54, 10967 Berlin
.
A Happy New Year to you in 2022!
