Plan for returning to your home country
Even if leaving Germany feels distant, planning your eventual exit protects the money you build up here. The big questions are what happens to your German state pension contributions, whether your private products travel with you, and how German exit-tax and reporting rules treat you on departure. The answers depend heavily on your nationality and destination: EU/EEA citizens and people moving within the EU are generally locked into the pension system and paid a slice at retirement, while many non-EU nationals can eventually have contributions refunded. Getting the timing right, and doing the paperwork in the correct order, can be worth thousands of euros and avoid nasty tax surprises.
Your German state pension contributions
What happens to your statutory pension contributions on departure depends on who you are and where you go. If you have at least five years of qualifying contributions (the minimum vesting period), you keep a German pension entitlement for life: you simply claim it from abroad once you reach retirement age, and Germany pays the portion that corresponds to your German contribution years. Periods worked elsewhere in the EU/EEA or Switzerland are aggregated toward thresholds under EU coordination rules.
A refund (Beitragserstattung) of your own employee contributions, roughly 9.3% of gross salary while you were paying in, is possible mainly for non-EU nationals who have left and have fewer than five contribution years, or otherwise cannot top up to the vesting threshold. Even then you must wait 24 months after your last mandatory contribution and have left Germany (and must not be resident in the EU/EEA, UK, Switzerland or certain Western Balkan states). The refund covers only your own contributions, never the employer's share, so where you qualify for a future pension instead, that pension is usually the more valuable option. Form V901 is used to apply, and payment can take many months.
Portability of private products
Private financial products vary widely in how well they travel. Investments held in a securities account (ETFs, funds) are generally portable in substance, but your German broker may not be able to keep serving you once you are non-resident, so you may need to transfer holdings to a broker in your new country, which can have tax consequences. Check each provider's policy on non-resident clients well before you move.
Insurance-based and pension products (private Rentenversicherung, Riester, Ruerup, company pensions) have their own rules: some can continue to be held and paid out later from abroad, others lose tax advantages or even require repayment of subsidies if you leave the country or the EU. Riester subsidies, for example, can have to be repaid on a permanent move outside the EU/EEA. Review every contract's small print on emigration, and never simply cancel a long-running policy on impulse, as surrender values are often poor and cancellation can be irreversible.
Tax and timing on exit
Leaving Germany means formally deregistering your residence (Abmeldung) and, usually, filing a final German tax return for your part-year of residence. Once you are no longer tax-resident, Germany generally taxes you only on German-source income. Watch for specific traps: Germany has an exit-tax (Wegzugsbesteuerung) that can apply to substantial shareholdings in companies when you give up residence, and your new country's rules on foreign pensions and investments will also bite, so double-taxation treaties matter.
Timing can change outcomes materially. The 24-month wait for a pension refund, the year in which you realise investment gains, and the date you cease German tax residence can all interact. The order of operations (when you sell, when you deregister, when you apply for refunds) is worth planning deliberately, ideally with cross-border tax advice covering both Germany and your destination.
- 1Check whether you have five qualifying contribution years and whether your nationality/destination allows a pension refund.
- 2Decide between keeping a future German pension entitlement and applying for a refund where eligible.
- 3Review each private and insurance product's rules on emigration and tax before doing anything irreversible.
- 4Confirm whether your German broker can keep you as a non-resident, and plan any transfer of investments.
- 5Map the timeline: last contribution, 24-month wait, Abmeldung date, and when you realise gains.
- 6File your Abmeldung and final German tax return, and watch for exit-tax exposure on shareholdings.
- 7Get cross-border tax advice covering both Germany and your destination before the move.
- Federal Foreign Office - refund of pension contributions
- Deutsche Rentenversicherung - English information
- EU - state pensions abroad
- Make it in Germany - leaving Germany
General information for expats in Germany, not individual advice. Rules and figures change; verify against the official sources above and your own situation.