Germany Net Salary Calculator 2026
Estimate your 2026 take-home pay in Germany: wage tax by tax class, solidarity surcharge, church tax by state, and pension, unemployment, health and care insurance with the 2026 ceilings. Every rate is shown and editable.
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About the Germany Net Salary Calculator
The Germany Net Salary Calculator estimates your 2026 take-home pay in Germany. Enter your gross salary per year, month, 4 weeks, 2 weeks or week, pick your Bundesland, your tax class (Steuerklasse I to VI), whether you pay church tax, and your care-insurance status. The result shows net pay per year and per month, the total deductions and their share of your pay, and a breakdown where every line carries its scope, the 2026 tax year and its rate.
The page opens with Nordrhein-Westfalen, tax class I, no church tax and "Childless, aged 23 or over". A German-language version of this page is the Brutto Netto Rechner.
Wage tax (Lohnsteuer)
The official algorithm
German wage tax is not a simple bracket table. Every payroll program follows the Federal Ministry of Finance's Programmablaufplan für den maschinellen Lohnsteuerabzug 2026 (PAP 2026), and so does this calculator, for a yearly pay period. The tariff is §32a EStG 2026: nothing up to the basic allowance of 12,348 €, two progressive zones whose rate rises from 14% to 42%, then 42% from 69,879 € and 45% from 277,826 €.
Allowances per tax class
Classes I to V deduct the employee allowance of 1,230 € and the special-expenses allowance of 36 €. Class II adds the single-parent relief of 4,260 €. Class III applies the tariff to half the taxable income and doubles the result (splitting). Classes V and VI use the special formula for second earners and second jobs, and class VI has no allowances at all. The PAP also deducts a Vorsorgepauschale for your pension, health and care contributions.
Solidarity surcharge and church tax
Solidarity surcharge
5.5% of the wage tax, but only once the wage tax passes 20,350 € (40,700 € in class III). Just above that limit the surcharge is capped at 11.9% of the excess, so it phases in smoothly.
Church tax
If you are a member of a church that levies it, church tax is 8% of the wage tax in Bayern and Baden-Württemberg and 9% in the other 14 Länder.
Social insurance
You pay half of pension insurance (18.6%) and unemployment insurance (2.6%) on pay up to 101,400 €, and half of health insurance (14.6% plus your fund's Zusatzbeitrag, 2.9% on average) on pay up to 69,750 €. Care insurance is half of 3.6%, except in Sachsen, where employees pay 2.3%. Without children and from age 23 you add a 0.6% surcharge. Since 2025 there is one ceiling for all of Germany.
Worked example
50,000 € a year, class I, Nordrhein-Westfalen
Social insurance comes to 10,875.00 €: pension 4,650.00, unemployment 650.00, health 3,650.00, additional health 725.00, care 900.00 and the childless surcharge 300.00. The Vorsorgepauschale is 10,075 €, so taxable income is 50,000 − 1,230 − 36 − 10,075 = 38,659 € and the wage tax is 6,788.00 €. There is no solidarity surcharge, so net pay is 32,337.00 € a year, or 2,694.75 € a month. As a church member, church tax adds 610.92 €.
What the estimate leaves out
The result assumes statutory health insurance and compulsory pension and unemployment insurance. It leaves out child allowances for the surcharge and church tax, the care-insurance reductions for a second to fifth child, the factor method in class IV, personal allowances on the tax card, private health insurance, mini-jobs and the transition zone up to 2,000 € a month, bonuses and holiday pay, and church tax caps. A company pension by deferred compensation lowers taxable pay up to 8,112 € and contributions up to 4,056 €.
Edit and reset the rates
The 42% and 45% rates, the solidarity surcharge, church tax and every social-insurance rate are fields in the Tax rates panel. Set your own fund's Zusatzbeitrag there. The ceilings, the basic allowance and the class allowances are fixed amounts. Reset to 2026 defaults restores every rate.
Sources
The values come from the BMF PAP 2026, §32a EStG, the SolzG, the Sozialversicherungsrechengrößen-Verordnung 2026, the Federal Ministry of Health and the churches, and were cross-checked with the BMF's own wage tax calculator.
Privacy
Nothing is uploaded; every calculation runs in your browser and never leaves your device. Your salary and the rates you enter are not stored or sent anywhere.
Related tools
Compare countries with the Net Salary Calculator, or work out gross pay from an hourly rate with the Gross Pay Calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Which tax class am I in?
Single employees are in class I, and single parents who can claim the relief are in class II. Married couples choose III and V when one partner earns much more, otherwise IV and IV. Class VI applies to a second job.
What is take-home pay on 50,000 € a year?
In class I in Nordrhein-Westfalen, childless and without church tax: wage tax 6,788.00 €, social insurance 10,875.00 €, so net pay is 32,337.00 € a year or 2,694.75 € a month.
Do I pay the solidarity surcharge?
Only when your wage tax passes 20,350 € a year (40,700 € in class III), which in class I happens from about 92,396 € gross. At 120,000 € it is 1,337.91 €, and at 200,000 € the full 5.5%, 3,585.61 €.
How much is church tax?
8% of the wage tax in Bayern and Baden-Württemberg and 9% in the other Länder, only for members of a church that levies it. At 50,000 € in class I it is 543.04 € in Bayern and 610.92 € in Nordrhein-Westfalen.
What does the Zusatzbeitrag field mean?
It is your health fund's additional contribution, 2.9% on average in 2026. Enter your fund's full rate; you pay half. It also changes the Vorsorgepauschale, and so the wage tax.
Does a company pension lower my tax?
Yes. Deferred compensation into a company pension is tax-free up to 8,112 € a year and free of social insurance up to 4,056 €. At 50,000 € with 5%, the wage tax falls from 6,788.00 € to 6,172.00 €.