Germany Gross-to-Net Salary Calculator (Brutto-Netto-Rechner)

About the Germany Gross-to-Net Salary Calculator (Brutto-Netto-Rechner)

Work out your net pay in Germany from your gross salary: wage tax (Lohnsteuer) for tax classes I to VI, the solidarity surcharge (Solidaritätszuschlag), church tax (Kirchensteuer) and your share of pension, unemployment, health and long-term care insurance. The wage tax follows the Federal Ministry of Finance’s wage tax program (Programmablaufplan) step by step, with its own rounding, so it matches what a payroll system takes from a monthly salary.

The calculator also handles mini-jobs and the transition zone (Midijob), private health insurance with the employer’s subsidy, benefits in kind such as a company car, tax allowances on your ELStAM and the factor method for married couples in class IV, and it shows what your employer pays on top. Labels give the German terms in brackets, as on a German payslip. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.

How the wage tax is worked out

Payroll multiplies your monthly pay by 12 and takes off the allowances of § 39b (2) EStG: the employee lump sum of 1.230 € (§ 9a), the special-expenses lump sum of 36 € (§ 10c), in class II the single-parent relief of 4.260 € (§ 24b), and a provision for social contributions (Vorsorgepauschale): half the pension contribution, the employee share of health insurance at the reduced rate of 14 % plus half your fund’s additional rate, the care contribution, and the unemployment contribution as far as it fits under 1.900 € together with health and care.

The § 32a EStG tariff then gives the tax for the year: nothing up to the basic allowance (Grundfreibetrag) of 12.348 €, then rising from 14 % to 42 % and 45 % at the top. Class III uses splitting (twice the tax on half), classes V and VI a special rule with at least 14 %, and with the factor method the class IV tax is multiplied by the factor (§ 39f). A month’s wage tax is a twelfth of the year’s, cents cut off.

Social insurance contributions

• Pension (Rentenversicherung): 18,6 %, half each, on pay up to 8.450 € a month (DRV current values).
• Unemployment (Arbeitslosenversicherung): 2,6 %, half each, on the same pay.
• Health (Krankenversicherung): 14,6 % plus your fund’s additional rate, half each, on pay up to 5.812,50 € a month (Federal Ministry of Health).
• Long-term care (Pflegeversicherung): 3,6 %, 1,8 % each (in Saxony 2,3 % for you and 1,3 % for the employer). Without children you pay a 0,6 % surcharge alone from the month after your 23rd birthday; parents pay 0,25 points less for each child under 25 from the second to the fifth (care insurance contributions).

Tax classes (Steuerklassen)

• I: single, separated or divorced.
• II: single parents who get the single-parent relief.
• III and V: married couples or civil partners where one earns much more: III for the higher earner, V for the other.
• IV and IV: both earn about the same; IV with factor spreads the couple’s splitting advantage over both salaries.
• VI: a second job.

The class only decides how much is withheld during the year. Couples assessed jointly pay the income tax of the splitting tariff either way; with III/V or a factor both have to file a tax return (§ 46 (2) no. 3a EStG).

Mini-jobs and the transition zone

Up to 603 € a month a job is a mini-job: the employer pays 15 % pension and 13 % health contributions, and usually a 2 % flat tax that covers wage tax, surcharge and church tax (§ 40a EStG); you pay only the rest of the 18,6 % pension contribution, 3,6 % of your pay, unless you opt out. From 603,01 € to 2.000 € a month you are in the transition zone (Übergangsbereich): your contributions start near zero and rise to the full share at 2.000 €, worked out on a reduced base (§ 20 (2a) SGB IV; DRV on the transition zone). Wage tax is charged on your full pay.

Solidarity surcharge and church tax

The solidarity surcharge is 5,5 % of the wage tax, but only when the tax for the year is above 20.350 € (40.700 € in class III), with a taper of 11,9 % of the excess just above that line (§ 3 and § 4 SolZG), so most employees pay none. Church tax is 8 % of the wage tax in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg and 9 % in the other Länder. For both, child allowances are taken off first: they lower the surcharge and church tax but not the wage tax itself.

Limitations

• Current monthly pay only. One-off payments such as a Christmas bonus are taxed with the annual table (sonstige Bezüge) and are not included.
• Pensions in payment (Versorgungsbezüge), apprentices (the transition zone does not apply to them, and up to 325 euros a month the employer pays all contributions), students’ special rules and short-term employment are not covered.
• The employer’s cost leaves out the levies U1 and U2, the insolvency levy and accident insurance, which depend on the employer and the fund.
• Payroll software may differ by a few cents, because each contribution is rounded separately.
• Wage tax is withheld during the year; the income tax for the year is set by the tax office in the assessment, which can lead to a refund or an extra payment.
• An estimate from the published rules, not tax or payroll advice: your employer’s payroll decides what you are paid.

Privacy

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