Germany methodology (tax year 2026)
Wage tax, solidarity surcharge, church tax
Wage tax uses the official 2026 Programmablaufplan (PAP) of the Federal Ministry of Finance, to the cent, through an MIT-licensed library generated from the official XML pseudocode. The solidarity surcharge and the church tax base come from the same program. Church tax is 8% in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg and 9% in every other state.
Social insurance 2026
| Branch | Employee rate | Ceiling per month |
|---|---|---|
| Health insurance | 7.3% plus half the insurer surcharge (average 2.9%, so 1.45%) | €5,812.50 |
| Long-term care | 1.8% (plus 0.6% if childless from 23; 0.25% less per child 2 to 5 under 25; Saxony 2.3%) | €5,812.50 |
| Pension | 9.3% | €8,450.00 |
| Unemployment | 1.3% | €8,450.00 |
Source: Sozialversicherungsrechengrößen-Verordnung 2026 (BGBl. 2025 I No. 278).
Assumptions
- By default you are in statutory health and pension insurance; private health insurance, exemptions from pension or unemployment insurance and benefits in kind can be set in the calculator.
- An even monthly salary without one-off payments; bonuses such as Christmas pay follow a separate procedure.
- No tax allowances other than child allowances as entered.
Mini-jobs and midi-jobs
Up to €603 a month (mini-job) the employee pays only the 3.6% pension share, calculated on at least €175, or nothing after opting out. There is no health, care or unemployment insurance, and we assume the usual 2% flat tax paid by the employer.
From €603.01 to €2,000 (the transition zone) Section 20 (2a) SGB IV applies with the 2026 factor F of 0.6619: contribution base BE = F × 603 + (2000 / 1397 minus 603 / 1397 × F) × (pay minus 603), employee base 2000 / 1397 × (pay minus 603). For each branch the total contribution is twice the rounded half rate on BE, the employee pays half the rate on the employee base, and the employer pays the rest. The childless care surcharge of 0.6% on BE is paid by the employee alone. Wage tax uses the full pay, because the transition zone does not count for tax (BMF letter of 14 August 2025, para. 7). Checked against the worked example in the German Pension Insurance transition zone calculator (€650, exact to the cent).
Tax year selector
The gross-to-net and net-to-gross calculators also cover tax year 2025 (PAP 2025; ceilings €8,050 and €5,512.50, average surcharge 2.5%, mini-job limit €556, factor F 0.6683). The BMF no longer offers an external test interface for earlier years; the 2025 core comes from the same official XML source whose 2026 output we verified to the cent against the BMF tax calculator.
Verification
Automated tests cover tax classes, ceilings, care insurance surcharges and reductions, Saxony, church tax, mini-jobs and the transition zone. Reference: the official BMF tax calculator (bmf-steuerrechner.de); the wage tax core is generated from its program and matches it to the cent.