Gross to net Germany

Where does your salary actually go?

Most of the gap between your contract and your account is not tax. This works the month out line by line, draws it at scale so you can see which deduction is actually the large one, and says what the next hundred euro of a raise would be worth.

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.

Compare a pay rise or part-time salary

Alternative gross pay, in the same period as above€ Your monthly saving before the change€ Months from now until the change

Net, every month

€2,606 65.14 % of your gross · €31,266 a year

One month of gross, at scale

Net pay 65.14 %Wage tax 13.11 %Pension insurance 9.3 %Unemployment insurance 1.3 %Health insurance 8.75 %Long-term care insurance 2.4 %

Where it goes	Per month	Per year	Share
what actually arrives	€2,606	€31,266	65.14 %
withheld monthly as an advance on your income tax	€524	€6,294	13.11 %
buys the Entgeltpunkte your state pension is made of	€372	€4,464	9.3 %
60 percent of your net for a year, 67 with a child	€52	€624	1.3 %
treatment, and sick pay from the seventh week	€350	€4,200	8.75 %
care costs later, at a rate that depends on children	€96	€1,152	2.4 %
Gross	€4,000		100 percent

The next 100 euro€54is what a €100 raise would actually add, after tax and contributions

What the month costs your employer€4,846€846 more than your gross, in contributions you never see

A year of this earns0.92Entgeltpunkte towards your state pension

The same month, on the scale of what it costs

Your gross €4,000 Employer contributions €846

The same month under the 2025 rules would have left €2,602, €3 less.

This is the monthly withholding, not your final tax. A tax return settles the difference, and this does not model private health insurance, one-off payments, a company car or short-time work.

See what those pension contributions become

What this answers

Which deduction is actually the large one

People blame the income tax for the gap between contract and account. On an ordinary salary the four social insurances take more than the tax office does, and the bar above puts both at their real size rather than in a list where every line looks alike.

The number to keep

What the next hundred euro is worth

Not one minus your average rate, and not one minus your tax rate either. Contributions stop at their ceilings while the tariff keeps climbing, so above those ceilings a raise is suddenly worth more of itself than it was below them.

What it does not answer

What you finally owe for the year

Withholding is a monthly estimate the tax office makes on your behalf. Work-related costs, a second income, a partner's pay and everything else are settled by the return, which is where money usually comes back.