Germany Parental Allowance (Elterngeld) Calculator

About the Germany Parental Allowance (Elterngeld) Calculator

Work out your parental allowance (Elterngeld) in Germany: Basiselterngeld and ElterngeldPlus from your net income before the birth, by the rules of the Parental Allowance and Parental Leave Act (BEEG). It is 65 to 100 % of the income you lose, at least 300 € and at most 1.800 € a month; with part-time work after the birth it is the rate on the income you lose. ElterngeldPlus pays half as much for twice as many months, and with part-time work it can pay as much.

If you do not know your “Elterngeld net” (Elterngeld-Netto), the calculator estimates it from your gross pay the way the parental allowance office does: with the wage-tax program of the year before the birth and flat social deductions (§§ 2c to 2f BEEG). It adds the sibling bonus and the supplement for twins, checks the income limit and adds up a plan of months. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.

How much parental allowance

The allowance is 67 % of the net income you had before the birth (§ 2 BEEG). Below 1.000 € the rate rises by 0,1 points for each 2 € less, up to 100 %; above 1.200 € it falls by 0,1 points for each 2 € more, down to 65 % from 1.240 €. At most 2.770 € of pre-birth income count, so the most is 1.800 € a month, and everyone gets at least 300 €, even without any income before the birth. With income after the birth the rate applies to the income you lose.

Basiselterngeld, ElterngeldPlus and the partnership bonus

• Basiselterngeld: the parents share 12 months, plus 2 partner months when the income of the other parent drops for two months too; one parent can take at most 12, a single parent 14 (§ 4 BEEG). It is paid until the baby is 14 months old.
• Both at once: both parents can draw Basiselterngeld in the same month only once, in one of the baby’s first 12 months; twins and other multiples, babies born at least six weeks early and children with a disability are the exceptions, and ElterngeldPlus can always overlap (§ 4 (6) BEEG).
• ElterngeldPlus: each month of Basiselterngeld can be taken as two months of ElterngeldPlus, at most half the Basiselterngeld you would get without income (§ 4a BEEG); with part-time income it can be as high as Basiselterngeld.
• Partnership bonus: if both parents work 24 to 32 hours a week at the same time, each gets 2 to 4 extra months of ElterngeldPlus (§ 4b BEEG).
• Each parent who claims must take at least 2 months. The months in which the mother gets maternity pay count as her months of Basiselterngeld.

The Elterngeld net

The parental allowance office works out your net income itself from your gross pay in the 12 months before the birth (without one-off payments): it takes off a twelfth of the 1.230 € employee lump sum, the wage tax, solidarity surcharge and church tax (at 8 % in every Land) of the wage-tax program of the year before the birth, with your tax class, factor and child allowances (§ 2e BEEG), and flat social deductions: 9 % for health and care if you were compulsorily insured, 10 % for pension and 2 % for unemployment insurance (§ 2f BEEG). Its result can differ from the net on your payslip.

Siblings, twins and the income limit

The sibling bonus adds 10 %, at least 75 €, while you live with two children under 3 or three under 6, the baby included; for twins and other multiples you get 300 € more for each further baby instead, so a twin does not count for the sibling bonus, an older brother or sister does (§ 2a BEEG). There is no entitlement if your taxable income in the last assessment year before the birth was above 175.000 €; for couples the two incomes are added (§ 1 (8) BEEG).

Limitations

• The estimate from gross pay covers employees above the transition zone; for a mini-job, a Midijob, self-employment or several jobs enter the Elterngeld net from your parental allowance notice or the office.
• Maternity pay (Mutterschaftsgeld) and the employer’s top-up in the weeks after the birth are credited against Basiselterngeld in those months, and other benefits replacing income can be too (§ 3 BEEG); they are not taken off here.
• Elterngeld is not taxed itself but raises the tax rate on your other income (the progression clause, § 32b EStG).
• The months of both parents, premature births and the partnership bonus have more rules than the plan here; the parental allowance office decides.
• An estimate from the published rules, not legal or financial advice.

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