It may be true but Belgium has the highest tax rates in the EU. I don't want to live there and ofc I'm leaving Germany. Germany is a sinking ship.
True that they have a higher tax rate but I have lived there before for a bit never lived in Germany but if i were to compare it too for example Netherlands, Netherlands has taxes for everything like literally everything, they got tax for tax on a tax with an extra tax on top. The living life in Belgium in most terms are cheaper then Netherlands and a lot better, Only reason I did not stay there was because I knew no one over there and social life was a down spiral and I had other issues also so staying there was not doable for me, but when it comes to earnings and living and etc I was doing a quite a bit better then Netherlands.
See the tax on salary over there I was paying a lot more then I do on what I earn here in Netherlands, however because of cheaper insurance and cheaper other options and rent was a lot cheaper for a bigger house too, I was doing better.
For example, If I earned 1700 in Netherlands because of the cost on car insurance health insurance and tax on those 2 alone I am left with 1300 while for the same 1700 earned in Belgium I would have had 1450 left at least, what I can say is that Groceries is more expensive then in Netherlands and Germany is a lot cheaper then both of em from my last visit. My luck was I was living not so far from the border so I used to do my groceries in Netherlands and everything else in Belguim.
Not saying this is how you should live your life but what I am trying to say is find any neighbor country and see if you can live on the border and try to get benefits from both.
Another example of how to avoid taxes in Netherlands would be if you live close to the border of say Germany or Belgium and you have a job in Germany or Belgium but live in Netherlands, then you can avoid having to pay life insurance and also income tax as you can take those from in the country you are working in, you will every year have to fill in a paper to prove you are working and have insurance in the neighbor country though but that is just an extra 20/30 min work of reading and filling in and then posting.
Maybe this is something you can look in to as being a student ? like for example rent a post box in a neighbor country and use that address for business purpose which could help avoid you having that insane insurance ? just throwing out idea's here, of course everywhere has their own rules and law's surrounding this so not sure how Germany's is on this, but could be something you could look in to ?
anyways m8 goodluck and hope things work out, a year is long but it will pass hopefully quick without too much of a hassle for you.