(2024) Ehegattensplitting for registered civil partnerships

The Federal Constitutional Court has ruled:

Registered civil partnerships are also entitled to joint tax assessment with the splitting tariff. The unequal treatment of same-sex marriages and "normal" marriages in spouse splitting is unconstitutional (BVerfG ruling of 7.5.2013, 2 BvR 909/06).

The legislator was obliged to amend the legal situation retroactively from 1.8.2001 - the day the Civil Partnership Act came into force. A new general clause was added to the Income Tax Act:

"The provisions of this Act for spouses and marriages also apply to civil partners and civil partnerships" (§ 2 para. 8 EStG).

The new regulation applies to all still open tax cases in which income tax has not yet been definitively assessed (§ 52 para. 2a EStG).

Further equalisation will take place from 1.1.2015 with the "Act to Revise the Civil Partnership Law" of 15.12.2004. This law further expands the legal equality of same-sex civil partners with spouses.

Please select "Same-sex marriage/civil partnership" as your marital status in Lohnsteuer kompakt.

 

For same-sex married couples and registered civil partners who wish to submit a joint tax return (=joint assessment), the tax authorities have specified who should be entered as the taxable person:

• Enter the partner first in the tax return whose surname comes first in alphabetical order.
• If the surnames are the same, the alphabetical order of the first names decides.
• If the first names are also identical, the older partner should be entered as the taxpayer.