How can I set up an exemption order for capital gains?

More than most people expect – and the longer your money stays invested, the more it matters. Compound interest means your returns stay invested and earn returns of their own.

A worked example, not a forecast: at an assumed 5% return per year, €10,000 grows to around €16,300 in 10 years. Without compounding – if the returns were withdrawn every year – it would be €15,000. After 30 years the gap is wide: around €43,200 instead of €25,000. A good €18,000 of that comes from compounding alone.

Time is therefore the most important factor. In the first years the effect is barely visible; after that it grows faster and faster, because the base keeps growing. Starting earlier gives the effect more years – and that usually outweighs a higher savings amount later.

For the effect to work, returns have to stay invested. That is why quirion reinvests interest and dividends.

Important: the example assumes a constant return. Capital-market returns vary from year to year, and returns are not guaranteed. The long-term principle stays the same.

The advantages come down to time, ownership and your child's own tax allowances.

Time: there are many years until the 18th birthday, which is time enough to sit out market swings – so a high equity share is possible at the start. Getting in: a savings plan from €25 a month, one-off payments with no minimum. And anyone can pay in – grandparents, godparents, friends: all they need is the IBAN.

Ownership: the account is in your child's name, and the assets belong to your child from the very first instalment. That separates them from your own assets – they count neither in your initial nor in your final assets for equalisation of accrued gains, and if a creditor enforces against you, your child can defend its property. Tax: your child has allowances of its own, among them the €1,000 annual saver's allowance; with a non-assessment certificate roughly €13,384 of investment income a year stays tax-free (as at 2026).

And as with every investment in securities: prices fluctuate and losses are possible.

With a "normal" ETF savings plan at a bank or a broker, you usually invest your money in just one ETF, i.e. a single index. As a rule, you have to pick this one yourself. At quirion, you always invest – in the savings plan too – in a complete ETF portfolio made up of several ETFs as part of a managed portfolio. These are selected by a team of investment professionals on the basis of current financial market research. In this way, we bring almost the entire world market into your portfolio. That is not possible with a single ETF. In addition, our experts constantly monitor whether cheaper or even more suitable ETFs come onto the market and then adjust the portfolios accordingly at no extra charge. And: before you invest, quirion determines your personal risk-return profile and ensures that your portfolio matches this profile – not only at the time of investment, but also on an ongoing basis through regular rebalancing.

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Instead of an exemption order, you can submit a non-assessment certificate (NV-Bescheinigung).

You can obtain this from your tax office. In this case, you do not need an additional exemption order.

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If you are liable for church tax, we automatically pay the church tax portion of your withholding tax to the tax office on your behalf. This is what tax law requires.

A portion of your capital gains (interest payments, price gains and dividend payments) always goes to the tax office. With the exemption order, you instruct your bank to exempt any capital gains that arise from the automatic tax deduction – to "release" them.

However, if you do not submit an exemption order, or if the capital gains exceed the statutory maximum limit, the credit institutions must pay 25 percent capital gains tax and 5.5 percent solidarity surcharge, and sometimes church tax as well, to the tax office on your behalf.

Depending on the product, the capital gains tax is calculated and paid to the tax office at different points in time. In the case of stocks, this happens when price gains or dividend payments have been credited to your account. Since 2023, the tax-free allowance has been 1,000 euros per person.

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The German Securities Trading Act (Wertpapierhandelsgesetz, WpHG) governs securities trading in Germany. Its main purpose is to oversee service providers that trade in securities as well as financial futures transactions. This protects you as a customer.

The WpHG requires securities services firms to advise you appropriately as an investor. The adviser must find out what experience you have with investments, what goals you are pursuing, what your financial situation is like and how willing you are to take risks. Only in this way can they recommend forms of investment that truly suit you.

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Almost all financial products come with ongoing management fees. The product provider deducts these fees from the fund's assets, for example, and keeps them. And it does so every year. Such costs also exist with certificates.

There they are called the „Management Fee“; „Fee“ stands for a charge. The product provider pays out parts of the management fee to the bank or the respective financial distributor. This payment is intended as an incentive for the distributors that sold the product. You receive the management fee from us in addition to the commission you paid when purchasing.

So the adviser gets paid both by you and by the product provider. They receive a commission for the products sold and therefore cannot advise you neutrally.

An example: You pay a so-called front-end load of 3 percent for an equity fund. In addition, the same equity fund charges an annual management fee of, say, 1.5 percent. Of this, your bank adviser or your bank receives, for example, 0.8 percent. These 0.8 percent are called kickbacks or trailer commissions.

At quirion, all kickbacks are credited to your account. quirion discloses all commissions so that you know exactly what you are paying.

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