Frequently asked questions

Steuerklasse determines how much income tax your employer withholds each month. It doesn't change your actual annual tax bill, only the timing of when you pay it (any over- or under-withholding is settled via your annual tax return, Steuererklärung).

• I: single, divorced, or widowed with no children.
• II: single parent, gets an extra relief allowance (Entlastungsbetrag).
• III: married, typically the higher earner. Withholding assumes a non-earning or low-earning spouse, so it's the lowest of the classes.
• IV: married, both spouses earn similarly, each taxed roughly as if single.
• V: married, the lower earner, pairing with a spouse in class III. Withholding runs higher to balance the household total.
• VI: a second job, or a job without a submitted tax card. No allowances apply here, so it withholds the most.

Not necessarily. Monthly Lohnsteuer is a provisional prepayment toward your annual income tax liability. Choosing III/V instead of IV/IV, for example, changes your monthly take-home pay but not your household's true annual tax. Any difference gets reconciled (refunded or billed) when you file your Steuererklärung. This calculator computes the actual withholding amount for the Steuerklasse you select, following the same formula your payroll system uses.

Classes I–IV get standard allowances (Grundfreibetrag, the employee lump-sum deduction, etc.) built into the withholding formula. Class V gets none of the Grundfreibetrag, since the assumption is that the spouse in class III is already using it, and class VI (typically a second job) gets no allowances at all. The tax itself isn't higher in the end. It's front-loaded onto whichever income the withholding rules treat as the "second" income in the household.

Use the Household comparison tool to see the actual Euro difference for your two salaries. As a rule of thumb: if one spouse earns significantly more than the other, III/V usually maximizes combined monthly take-home pay (by giving the higher earner more of the shared allowances), while IV/IV keeps each spouse's withholding closer to what they'd actually owe individually. Either way, your household's true annual tax bill stays the same. Ehegattensplitting applies at assessment time regardless of which combination you picked for withholding, and any gap gets settled via your Steuererklärung.

One real consequence, not just cash flow: state benefits calculated from net income, like Elterngeld, Arbeitslosengeld, Kurzarbeitergeld, or Mutterschaftsgeld, use whatever Steuerklasse was on file in the months before the claim. Class V's lower net income can mean a lower benefit for that spouse, which is a common reason to switch to IV/IV (or the Faktorverfahren) a few months before parental leave.

A third option, Steuerklasse IV with Faktorverfahren, computes a personalized factor so each spouse's withholding tracks their real share of the household's Splitting-adjusted tax: the accuracy of IV/IV's per-spouse fairness, without III/V's benefit-basis distortion. It's not modeled in this calculator, so ask your Finanzamt or payroll office to apply it if it interests you.

Germany uses a continuous progressive formula (§32a EStG), not simple brackets with flat rates. Income up to the Grundfreibetrag is tax-free, then the marginal rate rises smoothly from 14% up to 42%, then 45% above €277,825 (double that, €555,650, for jointly assessed married couples). Because it's a smooth curve rather than discrete brackets, there's no bracket-boundary jump. An extra euro of income is never taxed at a much higher rate than the previous euro.<br/><br/>The Grundfreibetrag itself is €12,348 in 2026 for a single person (Steuerklasse I, II, IV, V, or VI). For a married couple assessed jointly (Steuerklasse III, or IV with Ehegattensplitting), it effectively doubles to €24,696, since both spouses' allowances combine under the Splittingtarif.

The Soli is a 5.5% surcharge on your income tax, originally introduced to fund German reunification. Since 2021, most people no longer pay it: it's only due once your income tax exceeds an exemption threshold (€20,350 for singles in 2026), and there's a smoothing zone just above that threshold so the surcharge phases in gradually rather than jumping straight to 5.5%. Only high earners, roughly the top 10% of income taxpayers, pay the full rate.

Church tax is 8% (Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg) or 9% (all other states) of your income tax, collected on behalf of registered religious communities you belong to. It only applies if you're a registered member of a church that levies it. If you're not affiliated, or you've formally left (Kirchenaustritt) via your local registry office or courthouse, you don't pay it.

Four mandatory branches, each split between you and your employer (2026 combined rates):

• Pension insurance (Rentenversicherung): 18.6%, split 9.3/9.3.
• Unemployment insurance (Arbeitslosenversicherung): 2.6%, split 1.3/1.3.
• Health insurance (Krankenversicherung): 14.6% base rate plus your fund's Zusatzbeitrag (2.9% average in 2026), split evenly.
• Care insurance (Pflegeversicherung): 3.6% base rate, plus a 0.6-point surcharge if you're childless and 23+, minus a discount if you have multiple children under 25.

Each has an annual contribution ceiling (Beitragsbemessungsgrenze) in 2026, and income above it isn't subject to further contributions in that branch. Pension and unemployment share one ceiling: €101,400/year (€8,450/month). Health and care share a lower one: €69,750/year (€5,812.50/month).

Statutory insurance (GKV) charges a percentage of your salary, split with your employer, up to the contribution ceiling. Private insurance (PKV) charges a flat premium based on your age and health, not your income. Your employer instead pays a fixed subsidy toward it, capped at half of what they'd pay for an equivalent GKV employee at the contribution ceiling (€508.59/month for health plus up to €104.63/month for care in 2026), and you cover the rest yourself.

Still "Statutory (GKV)". Compulsory membership (Pflichtversicherung, below the Versicherungspflichtgrenze of €77,400/year in 2026) and voluntary membership (Freiwillige Versicherung, typically high earners who chose to stay in GKV instead of switching to private insurance) use the identical contribution formula on wage income: the same combined rate, the same employer/employee split, and the same contribution ceiling. The two only diverge for income the calculator doesn't model anyway. Voluntary members also pay GKV contributions on capital gains or rental income, which isn't part of a payroll-based salary calculation, so there's no separate option needed here. Your result is accurate either way.

Under §10 EStG, only a standardized, GKV-equivalent minimum coverage level, the Basisabsicherung, is tax-deductible from your income for withholding purposes, not whatever comfort or upgraded tier you actually pay for. Your private insurer sends an annual certificate stating this Basis amount separately from your real premium, and it's usually lower than what you actually pay if your plan is richer than the bare Basistarif. Using your full premium instead of the certified Basis amount overstates the deduction and understates your income tax, so enter the certificate figure for an accurate number, or leave it blank to approximate with your full premium.

Children reduce your Pflegeversicherung rate (a 0.25-point discount per child from the 2nd through 5th child under 25) and, for single parents (Steuerklasse II), add a relief allowance. Separately, the Kinderfreibetrag (child tax allowance, €9,756 per child in 2026, split €4,878/€4,878 between both parents on their respective tax cards) can lower your income tax if it's more favorable than the Kindergeld (child benefit) you receive monthly. The Finanzamt automatically applies whichever is better when you file your annual return, so most parents just claim Kindergeld through the year and don't need to think about this.

The most common causes: a different fund-specific Zusatzbeitrag than the 2.9% average used here, an employer that has you registered with a Freibetrag or Hinzurechnungsbetrag on your tax card, one-time payments (bonuses, 13th-month salary) taxed under a separate rule, Versorgungsbezüge (company pension income), or a taxable benefit-in-kind (geldwerter Vorteil) like a company car added to your gross pay before withholding. None of these are modeled here. For a standard monthly salary with no special allowances or benefits registered, the figures should match closely.

Your employer pays a matching share of pension, unemployment, health, and care insurance on top of your gross salary. "Employer total cost" adds that matching share to your gross pay. It has no direct effect on your own net pay. It just shows the other side of the split behind the deduction breakdown. Note this doesn't include employer-only costs this calculator doesn't model, like statutory accident insurance (Unfallversicherung) or Umlage contributions, so your employer's real total cost is somewhat higher still.

ERA (Entgeltrahmenabkommen) is the collectively-bargained pay-grade framework for Germany's metal and electrical industry, negotiated between IG Metall and the regional employer associations. Each region (Tarifgebiet), like Baden-Württemberg or Bayern, negotiates its own wage table independently, so an Entgeltgruppe (EG) with the same number can carry a different Euro amount depending on where you work, and different regions' tables go up to different maximum EG levels. See the ERA Bands page to compare.

T-ZUG A, T-ZUG B, and Urlaubsgeld are paid as lump sums at specific points in the year, not spread evenly across every paycheck. "Effective monthly gross" takes your total annual gross (base wage plus whichever supplements you've included) and divides by 12, giving a smoothed monthly figure useful for comparing bands or estimating net pay, not the literal amount on any single payslip.

Enrolled students who work no more than 20 hours per week during term (up to 40h during semester breaks) are exempt from statutory health, care, and unemployment insurance contributions through their employer. Pension insurance is the one exception. It's always mandatory, regardless of hours or income. Working more than 20h/week during term loses the exemption, and standard employee social insurance rules apply instead. See the Student calculator to model this.

The exemption only applies to contributions collected through your employer's payroll. You still need health insurance, just arranged yourself. If your income stays under roughly €565/month you can usually stay on free family co-insurance (Familienversicherung). Above that, most students use the reduced-rate statutory student insurance (Krankenversicherung der Studenten, KVdS, available under age 30) or a private student plan. KVdS is priced off a fixed reference income, not your actual wage, so it doesn't scale with what you earn.