Every step, worked Germany

How your payslip is worked out, line by line

Not a general explanation: this takes the numbers you just entered and walks them through every step a payroll system performs, in order, with the statute behind each one linked at the bottom of it.

Your month

Everything here is on your payslip or your ELStAM record. Where it is not, the default is the published average.

Gross pay€The figure in your contract, before anything comes off. Example: a salary quoted as 54,000 a year is the same as 4,500 a month – enter either. Quoted perContracts are written both ways. Everything below is still worked out a month at a time, because that is how payroll runs. Example: a package quoted at 78,000 is 6,500 a month. Tax classI single, II single parent, III the higher earner of a couple, IV both equal, V the partner of a III, VI a second job. Example: married and both earning similarly is IV. YearRates, ceilings and the tariff all move each January. Example: the same gross usually nets a little more in the newer year.

AgeThe childless care-insurance surcharge starts at age 23. Tax class IV factor, if registeredOnly enter the factor recorded in your ELStAM. Leave blank without the factor method.

Family and church

Church taxA share of the income tax, not of your salary. Example: 600 of income tax at 9 percent is 54 of church tax. Child allowancesThe Kinderfreibeträge on your ELStAM record: 0.5 per child for each parent, 1.0 if you claim the whole one. They change only the surcharge and the church tax. Example: two children shared with a partner is 1.0. Parenthood recognized for care insuranceChoose yes also when all your children are 25 or older, if your insurer recognizes your parent status. Children for the care contributionCount only children under 25 here. Parenthood is recorded separately and can remain relevant after children turn 25.

Insurance and where you work

Employment status Health insurance status More than one jobThis calculator supports one ordinary employee job with compulsory statutory insurance. Other situations receive a scope explanation instead of an estimate. Health insurance supplement%Your fund's own Zusatzbeitrag, which you split with your employer. Example: funds range from about 2.2 to 4.3, and switching can be worth a few hundred a year. Monthly tax allowance€A Freibetrag the tax office has already put on your ELStAM record. Example: a long commute recognised as 3,000 a year is 250 here. SaxonySaxony kept the public holiday everyone else gave up, so its employees carry half a point more of the care contribution. Example: worth about 20 a month on a 4,000 salary. Pension and unemployment insuranceAlmost every employee pays both. Example: a board member of an AG does not, and is otherwise an ordinary employee. Switching it off does not make the result a civil servant's pay – that case needs its own health and provision inputs and is refused rather than estimated.

Your €4,000 a month, for 2026, in the order a payroll system works it out.

Step 1

Where it starts

The figure in your contract. Everything below comes off it, and the order matters: the insurances are charged on the gross, while the taxes are charged on something quite a lot smaller.

Gross for the month
€4,000

Gross for the year
€48,000

Gross€4,000

The Federal Finance Ministry's payroll program flowchart
Step 2

Pension insurance

Shared equally with your employer, so you carry half of the total rate. It stops at a ceiling: pay above it is not insured and not charged, which is why a very high salary carries a smaller share than an ordinary one.

Total rate, both sides
18.6 %

Your half
9.3 %

Charged on
€4,000your gross, capped at the yearly ceiling of €101,400

Pension insurance€372

§ 341 SGB VI – the pension contribution rate
Step 3

Unemployment insurance

Also shared, also capped at the same ceiling as the pension. It is the smallest of the four and buys the most specific thing: a replacement income if the job ends.

Total rate, both sides
2.6 %

Your half
1.3 %

Charged on
€4,000

Unemployment insurance€52

§ 341 SGB III – the unemployment contribution rate
Step 4

Health insurance

Half the general rate, plus half of whatever your own fund adds on top. The ceiling here is lower than the pension's, so this contribution stops growing sooner.

General rate, both sides
14.6 %

Your fund's supplement, both sides
2.9 %

Your half of both
8.75 %

Charged on
€4,000your gross, capped at the yearly ceiling of €69,750

Health insurance€350

§ 241 SGB V – the general health contribution rate
Step 5

Long-term care insurance

Because you are at least 23 and entered no children, the employee-only childless surcharge is included. In a Midijob, that surcharge uses the reduced total-contribution base.

Total rate, both sides
3.6 %

Half of it
1.8 %

Your rate after the adjustments
2.4 %

Charged on
€4,000

Long-term care insurance€96

§ 55 SGB XI – the long-term care contribution rate
Step 6

The Vorsorgepauschale

The largest single number in the whole calculation, and it appears on no payslip. Before the tariff sees anything, the law subtracts a standing allowance for the year's insurance contributions. It is not the contributions themselves – the health part is computed at a lower rate than you actually pay – and it is why applying the income tax tariff straight to a salary overstates the tax by a wide margin.

Pension part
€4,464your half of the pension rate, on pay up to the ceiling

Health part
€4,056at the reduced rate of 14 %, not the general one you actually pay – the law computes this part as though you had no sick-pay entitlement

Care part
€1,152

Floor under the health and care parts
€1,90012 % of pay, capped at €1,900. Whichever is larger wins, so on an ordinary salary this floor changes nothing.

Unemployment part, new from 2026
€624counted only while it and the health and care parts together stay under €1,900, which in practice means it reaches lower earners and nobody else

Vorsorgepauschale for the year€9,672rounded up to a full euro, as the law directs

§ 39b EStG – the wage tax procedure
Step 7

What the tariff is applied to

Not your salary. The wage tax procedure annualises the month, subtracts its own allowances and the Vorsorgepauschale, and rounds the remainder down to a full euro. That remainder is what the tariff sees.

Gross for the year
€48,000

Less the employee allowance
-€1,230

Less the special expenses allowance
-€36

Less the Vorsorgepauschale
-€9,672

Taxable amount for the year€37,062

§ 39b EStG – the wage tax procedure
Step 8

The wage tax itself

Steuerklassen I, II and IV apply the tariff directly to the amount, exactly as a tax return would.

Tariff for the year
€6,294

Divided by twelve
€524

Wage tax€524

§ 32a EStG – the income tax tariff
Step 9

Solidarity surcharge and church tax

Neither is charged on your pay. Both are charged on the wage tax, which is why they move when it does and vanish when it is small. The surcharge has a threshold rather than an allowance: past it, it applies to the whole wage tax, so the law phases the first stretch in to stop one euro of pay costing far more than itself.

Base
€524

Surcharge threshold
€1,696no surcharge at all while the wage tax for the year stays under €20,350

Surcharge and church tax€0

§ 51a EStG – the base for surcharge and church tax
Step 10

What is left

Gross less every tax and contribution above. Whether social insurance or tax is larger depends on pay, family inputs, fund rate and contribution ceilings.

Gross
€4,000

Less taxes
-€524

Less contributions
-€870

Net pay€2,606

The Federal Finance Ministry's payroll program flowchart

Where it starts

Pension insurance

Unemployment insurance

Health insurance

Long-term care insurance

The Vorsorgepauschale

What the tariff is applied to

The wage tax itself

Solidarity surcharge and church tax

What is left