Deduct Dental Insurance And Dentist Costs from Taxes in Germany [2024 English Guide]

Key takeaways

• You can deduct dental treatment costs not paid by the health and dental insurance from your taxes. 
• The dental expenses that you can deduct from taxes must be medically necessary.
• The amount of dental costs that exceeds the reasonable burden is tax deductible.
• You also deduct supplementary dental insurance contributions from your income tax.

This is how you do it

• Keep the dentist invoices and medicine receipts for the year.
• Keep the invoices for other medical treatments for the tax year.
• Enter the medical expenses on your tax return as extraordinary expenses.
• Enter your dental insurance premiums as precautionary expenses on your tax return. 
• You can use one of the recommended online services to file income tax in Germany. We find Wundertax*, SteuerGo*, and Smartsteuer* among the best.

Table of Contents

Deduct Dental Expenses From Taxes

Can you deduct dental costs from taxes in Germany?

Yes, you can deduct medical expenses, including dental treatment costs, from your income tax return in Germany. However, the tax office deducts the reasonable burden from your extraordinary expenses. You can claim the rest in your tax return.

You can deduct the medical expenses if they fulfill the following requirements. 

• The treatment was medically necessary.
• Medical expenses are not covered by health insurance or supplementary insurance.
• The treatment cost exceeds the reasonable burden (Zumutbare Belastung).

The amount the tax office considers a reasonable burden depends on your

• income,
• marital status,
• and the number of children.

How do you calculate a reasonable burden for medical expenses?

The table below shows what percentage of income is considered a reasonable burden. Medical expenses that exceed this percentage are tax deductible.

	Income up to €15,340	Income from €15,340 to €51,130	Income over €51,130
Without children
Basic tariff / single	5%	6%	7%
Splitting tariff / married	4%	5%	6%
With children
One or two children	2%	3%	4%
Three or more children	1%	1%	2%

The tax authorities consider GdE income to calculate a reasonable burden. GdE income is the gross income minus the income-related expenses, age relief amount, the allowance for farmers and foresters, and the allowance for single parents ( Section 2 Paragraph 3 EStG ).

Example

Suppose you are single with no child and earn 50k € gross annually. You don’t get any of the above-mentioned allowances.

You can deduct the flat rate for income-related expenses of 1230 € (as of 2024) from your gross income. Thus, your GdE income is 48,770 € (50k-1230).

	GdE income	48,770€ (50,000 – 1230)
Reasonable burden	5 % of income share up to 15,340€	767 € (5% of 15430)
	6 % of income share over 15,340€ to 51,130€ (48,770 – 15,340)	2,005.80€ (6% of 33,430)
	Total reasonable burden (rounded)	2,772 € (767 + 2005.8)

Suppose your medical expense was 4000 €. The tax office will deduct the reasonable burden, i.e., 2772€ from the medical costs to get the tax-deductible amount.

Hence, you can deduct 1228 € (4k – 2772 €) from taxes.

You can also use the tax office calculator to calculate the tax-deductible amount.

How do you deduct dental costs from taxes in Germany?

You enter medical expenses for dental treatment or dentures in the extraordinary expenses appendix (Anlage Außergewöhnliche Belastungen).

Enter the dental costs under “Andere Aufwendungen -> Krankheitskosten (z. B. Arzt- und Behandlungskosten, Arznei-, Heil- und Hilfsmittel, Kurkosten).” You can find the section on line 19 (2023 tax form)

You can use online services to help you file and save income tax in Germany. We find Wundertax*, SteuerGo*, and Smartsteuer* among the best tax software out there.

If you have a complex tax return or filing it yourself makes you nervous, you should get advice from a tax consultant. Tax consultants are not cheap in Germany. Depending on your situation, they may cost between 500€ and thousands of euros.

However, a good tax consultant can save you a lot of money.

Tips on deducting dental expenses from your income tax return

• Keep the invoices for your dental and other medical treatments for the year.
• You should also keep the medicine and prescription bills. You should not underestimate the small medical bills. They can quickly add up to a large amount over the year.
• Try to plan your medical treatments in the same year. It increases your chances of exceeding the reasonable burden limit. For example, you get dental treatments and purchase new glasses in the same year. 

Deduct Dental Insurance From Taxes

Deduct dental insurance contributions from taxes in Germany

You can deduct insurance contributions from taxes in Germany. This includes dental insurance premiums also.

The tax office considers insurance premiums as precautionary expenses. However, the tax office set a limit on the amount of precautionary expenses you can deduct. It’s 1900 € (as of 2023) for employed and 2800 € (as of 2023) for self-employed. 

So, you can deduct a maximum of 1900 € or 2800 € (as of 2023) in insurance contributions per annum from taxes. But this includes the contributions to pension, health, long-term nursing care insurance, etc.

Contributions to legally required insurance are usually more than 1900 € per annum. Thus, there is little room to deduct dental insurance premiums from taxes.

However, you can deduct dental insurance contributions if you have low health insurance premiums. For example, you are insured under free family health insurance or have student health insurance. 

Nevertheless, you should declare all your insurance expenses in the tax return. The tax office will deduct them up to the maximum limit (i.e., 1900 € (employed) or 2800€ (self-employed) as of 2023).

You can read our guide on deducting health insurance costs from taxes to learn more.

Maximum insurance contributions you can deduct from taxes in Germany?

The maximum insurance premiums you can deduct from taxes depends on your employment and family status. 

	Employed, Student, Retired, Civil Servant	Self-employed
Single	1900 €	2800 €
Married couples filing joint tax return	3800 € (both are employed)	5600 € (both are self-employed)

The maximum limit applies to both spouses individually. So, if you are employed and your partner is self-employed, the limit will be 4700 € (1900 + 2800).

How do you deduct supplementary dental insurance from taxes in Germany?

You enter dental insurance contributions in the “Precautionary expenses appendix (Angaben zu Vorsorgeaufwendungen)” under section “über die Basisabsicherung hinausgehende Beiträge zu Kran­ken­ver­si­che­rungen.” 

If you have statutory or private health insurance, the section can be found on line 22 or 27 (2023 tax return form), respectively.

References

• https://www.deutsche-familienversicherung.de/zahnversicherungen/zahnzusatzversicherung/ratgeber/artikel/zahnzusatzversicherung-von-der-steuer-absetzen/
• https://www.finanztip.de/krankenzusatzversicherung/zahnzusatzversicherung/steuer-absetzen/