Salary calculator Germany 2026: Brutto Netto Rechner

Figures for a single employee in tax class I in 2026, no children, aged 23 or over, statutory health insurance at the average Zusatzbeitrag of 2.9%, not a church member, outside Saxony.

Amounts are rounded to whole units; type any salary into the calculator above for the exact figure and your own options.

Two kinds of deduction come off a German payslip. Taxes: wage tax (Lohnsteuer), which is an advance on your income tax, the solidarity surcharge (Soli) and church tax. Social insurance (Sozialversicherung): pension, unemployment, health and long-term care insurance, which your employer matches. For most employees the social contributions are about 21.75% of pay up to the ceilings, a larger slice than the income tax on an average salary.

Wage tax is not charged on your whole salary. Your employer first takes off the €1,230 employee allowance, a small special-expenses allowance and the tax-free part of your pension, health and care contributions (the Vorsorgepauschale), and applies the income tax tariff to what is left. Nothing is taxed up to the €12,348 basic allowance; above it the rate rises smoothly to 42%, and 45% applies from €277,826.

• Pension and unemployment insurance are charged on pay up to €101,400 a year; health and care insurance up to €69,750. Above those ceilings your contributions stop rising.
• Childless employees aged 23 or over pay a 0.6% care insurance surcharge; parents pay less from their second child under 25.
• Soli is only charged when your income tax is above €20,350 a year (€40,700 in class III), so most employees pay none.
• Small jobs have special rules: up to €603 a month (Minijob) there is usually only a small pension top-up, and up to €2,000 a month (Midijob) social contributions are reduced.

Your tax class decides how much wage tax is withheld, not how much you finally owe. Married couples can choose IV/IV, or III/V when one spouse earns much more: class III gets the splitting advantage and class V pays more, and the joint tax return settles the difference. Class VI applies to a second job and has no allowances at all.

Children do not lower wage tax directly, because families receive child benefit (Kindergeld) instead. They do lower the Soli and church tax, which are worked out as if the child allowance of €9,756 per child applied, and they lower care insurance. Church tax is 8% of your income tax in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg and 9% in the other states.

Most employees are in the statutory scheme (gesetzliche Krankenversicherung). Each fund sets its own Zusatzbeitrag on top of the general rate, and you and your employer share it equally, so enter your fund's rate for an exact result. Employees earning more than €77,400 a year can choose private insurance instead: you pay the premium and your employer pays up to half of it, capped at half of what the statutory contribution would be at the ceiling.

Taxable income is your wage minus the €1,230 employee allowance, the €36 special expenses allowance and the tax-free part of your social contributions (Vorsorgepauschale). In tax class III the tariff is applied to half the income and doubled (splitting); classes V and VI use a separate formula with no basic allowance.

Classes III and V only move tax between the spouses during the year; the final tax is settled in the joint tax return.

Your employer pays the same again (in Saxony less for care insurance). From €603.01 to €2,000 a month (Midijob) contributions are charged on a reduced base; up to €603 a month (Minijob) only a 3.6% pension top-up is due.

Soli and church tax are worked out on income tax after child allowances (€9,756 per child for both parents together), so children lower them even though they do not lower the wage tax itself.

Tax year 2026 (1 January to 31 December 2026). Every rate and threshold on this page was last checked on 23 September 2026 against the official sources below; the calculator, the tables and the figures in the text all come from the same data.

This is an estimate to help you plan, not financial or tax advice. Your employer, your tax authority and your own circumstances decide what you actually pay.

• Salary after tax in other countries: every country calculator

Sources: BMF: Programmablaufpläne zur Lohnsteuer 2026 (PAP) (checked 2026-09-23); BMF-Steuerrechner: PAP 2026 as XML pseudocode (checked 2026-09-23); Deutsche Rentenversicherung: Sozialversicherungsrechengrößen 2026 (checked 2026-09-23); Bundesgesundheitsministerium: Beiträge der gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung (checked 2026-09-23); Bundesgesundheitsministerium: Finanzierung der Pflegeversicherung (checked 2026-09-23); Deutsche Rentenversicherung: Übergangsbereich (Midijob) (checked 2026-09-23); Minijob-Zentrale: Rentenversicherungspflicht im Minijob (checked 2026-09-23); Deutsche Bischofskonferenz: Kirchensteuer (checked 2026-09-23)

1. Type your gross salary and choose whether it is per year, month or hour (for hourly pay, add your hours a week).
2. Pick your tax class, how many children you have and your state (Bundesland), and tick church tax if you are a member of a church that levies it.
3. Choose statutory or private health insurance: enter your fund's Zusatzbeitrag, or your private premium.
4. Read your net pay a year and a month and the breakdown of each tax and contribution, with your effective and marginal rates.