Germany Withholding tax rates
Germany Withholding tax rates: no single figure applies. The reason is set out below, cited to the governing instrument. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.
The withholding taxes Germany levies on payments to non-residents (beschränkt Steuerpflichtige) - dividends, interest, royalties, income of performing artists and sportspersons, and supervisory board remuneration - each at its domestic statutory rate (including the 5.5% solidarity surcharge on the withheld tax) before any double-tax treaty or EU directive relief. Withholding under §43a and §50a EStG; administered by the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern (BZSt) for §50a and refund/exemption procedures.
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What this value means
THERE IS NO SINGLE WITHHOLDING TAX RATE, WHICH IS WHY value IS NULL. Germany applies different withholding regimes at different rates depending on the type of payment: 26.375% on dividends, generally 0% on interest (with narrow statutory exceptions), 15.825% on royalties and on artistic/sporting performances, and 31.65% on supervisory board fees. All headline figures except interest are a statutory base rate plus the 5.5% solidarity surcharge levied on the withheld tax itself (SolZG 1995 §§3-4). A caller wanting a number must name which payment type; read withholding_rates rather than expecting a headline figure. ALL RATES ARE DOMESTIC STATUTORY RATES, BEFORE TREATY RELIEF AND BEFORE EU DIRECTIVE RELIEF. A double-tax treaty can reduce any of them, often substantially, and within the EU two directives as transposed into the EStG can eliminate the charge entirely: the Parent-Subsidiary Directive (§43b EStG - no Kapitalertragsteuer on dividends to an EU parent holding at least 10%, on application) and the Interest & Royalties Directive (§50g EStG - no tax on interest and royalties between associated EU companies, on application). These are relief mechanisms granted case-by-case via the BZSt exemption/refund procedure, not rates, and we do not serve them as rates. The mechanics matter: German law generally requires withholding at the full domestic rate unless a BZSt exemption certificate is in hand, with treaty/directive relief otherwise taken by refund. The series effective_from is 1 January 2009, when the current 25% flat Kapitalertragsteuer (Abgeltungsteuer, Unternehmensteuerreformgesetz 2008) and the current 15% §50a rate (Jahressteuergesetz 2009) both took effect. The solidarity surcharge has been 5.5% since 1998; its partial abolition from 2021 did not touch withholding taxes, which remain surcharged at the full 5.5% (SolZG §4 Satz 3).
Get it programmatically
curl https://euroref.dev/v1/de/withholding-tax
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://euroref.dev/v1/de/withholding-tax/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://euroref.dev/provenance/de/withholding-taxOther Germany series: Policy Rate (ECB Deposit Facility Rate) · Value Added Tax (Umsatzsteuer / Mehrwertsteuer) · Statutory Minimum Wage (Gesetzlicher Mindestlohn) · Public Holidays · Consumer Price Inflation (Verbraucherpreisindex, year-on-year) · Corporate Income Tax (Koerperschaftsteuer) · Personal Income Tax (Einkommensteuer) · Statutory social-insurance contributions (Sozialversicherungsbeiträge) · ECB main refinancing operations rate (fixed rate) · Late-payment interest (EU Late Payment Directive) · Statutory default interest (gesetzlicher Verzugszinssatz) · VAT registration threshold (Kleinunternehmerregelung)
The same figure elsewhere: Greece · Hungary · Iceland · Ireland · Italy · all 34