Germany Brutto-Netto Calculator
Work out your Netto pay in Germany from your Brutto salary, or the Brutto you need for a target Netto, with the official wage tax plan of the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF).
Germany — Einkommensteuergesetz (EStG, Income Tax Act) with the official BMF Programmablaufplan 2025/2026, Solidaritätszuschlaggesetz, church tax laws of the Länder and the Social Codes (SGB IV, V, VI, XI and III). Rules in force on 10/24/2026.
Estimate for guidance only: check the official sources or a licensed professional before relying on it.
Leaving your job? Severance pay in Germany
Questions about Brutto and Netto in Germany
Why is my Netto so much lower than my Brutto?
Two blocks come off your Brutto. Taxes are the wage tax (Lohnsteuer), the solidarity surcharge for high earners and church tax for church members. Social insurance takes roughly 21% of your pay up to the ceilings: 9.3% for pension, 1.3% for unemployment, about 8.75% for health and 1.8% to 2.4% for long-term care insurance.
Which tax class (Steuerklasse) do I have?
Single people are in class I and single parents in class II. Married couples and civil partners choose III and V (the higher earner takes III), IV and IV, or IV with a factor that spreads the tax fairly between both. Class VI applies to a second job. Your class is in your electronic tax data (ELStAM) and on your payslip.
What is the additional contribution (Zusatzbeitrag)?
Each statutory health insurer charges its own additional rate on top of the general 14.6%. The average was 2.5% in 2025 and 2.9% in 2026. You and your employer each pay half. Enter your insurer's rate, or leave the field blank to use the average.
How is church tax calculated?
Members of a church that levies the tax pay 8% of the wage tax in Bayern and Baden-Württemberg and 9% in the other states. Child allowances lower the base for church tax even though they do not change the monthly wage tax. Capping rules of some churches are not applied here.
What changes for a Midijob?
From €556.01 (2025) or €603.01 (2026) up to €2,000 a month you are in the transition zone (Übergangsbereich). Your social insurance share starts near zero and rises gradually, while the employer pays more. You still earn full pension rights. Wage tax is calculated on your full Brutto.
How the Germany Brutto-Netto calculator works
This calculator is for employees in Germany who want to know what is left of their salary. Enter your Brutto per month or per year, your tax class (Steuerklasse), federal state, church membership, year of birth, children and health insurance, and it shows your Netto with every deduction. The reverse mode does the opposite: enter the Netto you want and it finds the Brutto you need, which helps when you negotiate a salary or compare job offers. Amounts are in euros and you can choose the 2025 or 2026 rules.
Wage tax follows the official Programmablaufplan (PAP) that the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) publishes every year for payroll software, ported line by line for 2025 and 2026. It projects your pay to a year, deducts the employee allowance, the special-expense allowance and the provision allowance for social insurance (Vorsorgepauschale), applies the income tax tariff of section 32a EStG and spreads the result back over the month. The solidarity surcharge of 5.5% applies only above an exemption limit, and church tax is 8% or 9% of the wage tax, with child allowances lowering its base.
Social insurance uses the rates of each year: pension 18.6% and unemployment 2.6% split equally, health 14.6% plus your insurer's additional rate split equally, and long-term care 3.6%, with 2.3% for the employee in Sachsen, a 0.6% surcharge for childless people from age 23 and a 0.25% reduction for each child under 25 from the second to the fifth. Contributions stop at the ceilings (in 2026 €5,812.50 a month for health and care, €8,450 for pension and unemployment). In the Midijob zone up to €2,000 the employee share uses a reduced base. Private health insurance replaces health and care contributions with your premiums minus the employer subsidy.
Example: in 2026, a single person in class I in Nordrhein-Westfalen, born in 1990, without children, a church member and insured with the average 2.9% additional rate, earns €5,000.00 Brutto a month. Wage tax is €782.41, church tax €70.41 and there is no solidarity surcharge. Health insurance takes €437.50, care insurance €120.00, pension €465.00 and unemployment €65.00, leaving a Netto of €3,059.68. The result is an estimate: one-off payments, a company car, tax-free allowances on your tax data and your own tax return can change it.