Investing11 min read
Vorabpauschale Germany
The BMF set the 2026 Basiszins at 3.20 percent, and that number decides whether your ETF depot gets debited a few euros or a few hundred each January without a Freistellungsauftrag.
Field manual for life in Germany
Germany, decoded.
60 guides on visas, Anmeldung, banking, insurance, and taxes. Every figure carries the year it applies to, and links to the office that sets it.
No matches. Try “Anmeldung”, “Steuer-ID” or browse all guides.
01 / What do you need to do?
Pick the phase you are in.
The order matters. Anmeldung before bank account. Bank account before insurance.
02 / Browse by topic
Five hubs. The whole field manual.
Start with a topic, then drill into the category you need.
03 / Current
Recently verified guides.
Rule changes, fee updates, and paperwork that moved.
- 01 Vorabpauschale Germany The BMF set the 2026 Basiszins at 3.20 percent, and that number decides whether your ETF depot gets debited a few euros or a few hundred each January without a Freistellungsauftrag.
- 02 Loans for Freelancers in Germany KfW's August 2026 SME financing report confirms self-employed applicants still face tighter underwriting than salaried borrowers. Here's the exact document list and lender shortlist that changes that math.
- 03 Trade Republic vs Scalable Capital Germany A 1,000 EUR monthly ETV plan costs 12 EUR a year in fees on one platform and nothing on the other, depending purely on how many funds you split it across.
- 04 Credit Card Foreign Transaction Fees in Germany A 2,000 EUR trip on a standard German card quietly costs about 35 EUR in currency markup before you even hit an ATM. Two free Mastercards close that gap entirely, even without a long Schufa file.
04 / Essential guides
Start with the load-bearing ones.
05 / Why trust this
One editor. Official sources. Loud corrections.
Mahiuddin Al Kamal
Editor, ExpatDe
I moved to Germany a few years ago and kept a private notes file of every piece of paperwork, every Anmeldung mistake, every tax form I got wrong the first time. ExpatDe is that notes file, cleaned up and published.
Editorial method →-
Specific facts, or no facts.
Every price, tax rate, visa fee, or contribution ceiling is anchored with the year it applies to. If I am not sure a figure is still current, I link to the official source instead of inventing one.
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Official sources over opinion.
German bureaucracy has canonical sources (bundesfinanzministerium.de, elster.de, deutsche-rentenversicherung.de, make-it-in-germany.com). I link to them directly rather than paraphrasing a forum thread from 2019.
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Honest affiliate mentions.
A product only shows up on ExpatDe if I would actually recommend it to a friend arriving next week. Affiliate links are disclosed every time and never change the advice.
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Guides get refreshed, not abandoned.
Time-sensitive posts carry a visible "Updated" date. When a rule, rate, or deadline changes, the guide is rewritten in place, not replaced by a new slug.
An English-speaking expat who is anxious, time-poor, suspicious of affiliate blogs, and asking: what do I do next, what does it cost, which documents do I need, and can I trust this?
One short email a week.
New guides, dated changes, the occasional correction. From ExpatDe, in Germany.