Short Answer
You can deduct up to 1,000 € per month for your German rent plus travel costs under the Doppelte Haushaltsführung rule if your legal center of life remains abroad. This tax relief program requires you to maintain a secondary active household in your home country while working in Germany.
What Most Expats Don't Realize
You moved to Munich for a corporate role while your family stayed behind in your native country, where you continued paying the local mortgage. You did not realize that the German tax office requires strict physical proof that you financially contribute to that primary foreign home. Because you paid your shared foreign household bills in cash without keeping receipts, the auditor disqualified your dual-living status, resulting in a massive retroactive tax loss of 3,500 €.
What To Do
- Gather original rental receipts, utility bills, and bank transfers proving you cover at least 10% of the running costs of your primary home abroad.
- Print out all travel tickets and boarding passes documenting your regular return trips to visit your family.
- "Ich mache die Kosten für eine doppelte Haushaltsführung steuerlich geltend." (I am claiming the costs for a dual household for tax purposes.) — submit this request along with your foreign financial records to the tax office.
The Truth
This is a massive tax saver for expats, but the Finanzamt hates it. They will scrutinize your social ties to your home country to see if you've actually moved to Germany permanently.