Germany Take-Home Pay Calculator

Angestellter means you are a German employee, paid through payroll — usually via a contractor-of-record (CoR), German entity or umbrella. The cascade is: turnover, less ~5% CoR fee, less ≈20.95% employer Sozialversicherung (capped), gives gross salary; then the same ≈20.95% employee Sozialversicherung (also capped per branch), and Einkommensteuer (Lohnsteuer, tax class I) plus Soli, feed the net figure. Freiberufler is self-employment as a liberal professional: you invoice directly, self-fund health and care at ~16.3% (minimum ~€5,500, capped at €66,150), and Einkommensteuer runs on profit less that insurance. No Gewerbesteuer applies to a Freiberufler.

The German side is set to the 2025 German tax year: the § 32a EStG Grundtarif for 2025 (Grundfreibetrag €12,096), the 2025 Beitragsbemessungsgrenzen (€96,600 for pension and unemployment, €66,150 for health and care) and the 2025 Solidaritätszuschlag Freigrenze of €19,950. Those figures were carried forward from the previous version of this page and have not been re-verified against the 2026 German values, so treat every German number as an estimate at 2025 rates. The UK leg of the treaty top-up is 2026/27. The GBP/EUR rate is an input, defaulting to £0.855 per €1 as at late 2025 with no source recorded — set it to today's rate before you rely on the sterling column.

The 2025 Grundtarif (§ 32a EStG), single person: 0% to €12,096 (Grundfreibetrag); progressive formula zones to €17,443 and €68,480; 42% from €68,481 to €277,825; 45% above €277,826. Taxable income is rounded down to whole euros, and so is the resulting tax. Solidaritätszuschlag is 5.5% of income tax above the €19,950 Freigrenze — simplified, with the Milderungszone phase-in not modelled.

Freelancers must arrange their own Kranken- and Pflegeversicherung. This calculator uses a simplified voluntary statutory rate of ~16.3% combined on income up to the 2025 Beitragsbemessungsgrenze of €66,150, with a minimum of ~€5,500 a year. Above the ceiling, contributions stay flat. Pension (Rentenversicherung) is not modelled for Freiberufler, to keep the comparison focused on health, care and income tax — which does flatter the Freiberufler number. Real premiums depend on your Krankenkasse and declared income.

Most German "gross-to-net" salary calculators start from a gross salary already on a payslip and apply only employee Sozialversicherung plus Lohnsteuer. That misses the ≈20.95% employer Sozialversicherung and the ~5% contractor-of-record fee that sit between the client's invoice and the payslip when you are contracted via CoR or umbrella. For a UK contractor evaluating a German gig, the relevant number is the TJM the client pays, not the gross salary the umbrella shows you. This cascade reflects that end-to-end.

If you are a registered member of a recognised church (Catholic, Protestant and so on), Germany levies Kirchensteuer at 9% of your Einkommensteuer — 8% in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, which this tool does not distinguish. It is collected alongside Lohnsteuer. Toggle it in Advanced options to see the impact. It is off by default, because many contractors are not church members.

It depends on UK residence. If the SRT keeps you UK tax resident, HMRC also taxes this income, but Article 23 of the 2010 UK–Germany treaty gives a credit for German income tax paid. Switch UK tax residence to "UK tax resident" in Advanced options and the calculator surfaces the HMRC top-up at 2026/27 UK rates. If you are non-resident, Germany generally taxes its source income alone. Run the UK tax residency calculator first.

HMRC taxes the income you actually receive, not the client's invoice, so the UK basis is regime-specific: for Angestellter it is the gross salary on the German payslip (turnover net of the CoR fee and employer Sozialversicherung); for Freiberufler it is business profit after the health and care deduction. UK income tax is then computed at 2026/27 rates — £12,570 personal allowance, tapered by £1 for every £2 of income over £100,000, then 20% on the first £37,700 of taxable income, 40% to £125,140 and 45% above — and the German Einkommensteuer is credited as a Foreign Tax Credit, capped at the UK liability. Anything left is the HMRC top-up. UK NI is contribution-based and not relievable as a foreign tax credit, so it is excluded: with an A1 / Certificate of Coverage you would pay UK NI in place of German Sozialversicherung.

No — planning estimates only. Gewerbe vs Freiberufler classification, real Krankenkasse premiums, pension for freelancers, tax class variation, Soli Milderungszone, church tax at 8% vs 9%, and UK A1 / Certificate of Coverage treatment are not fully modelled, and the German figures are 2025. Always confirm with a German Steuerberater and a UK chartered tax adviser.