German Net Salary, Explained: How Much of Your Gross You Actually Keep

If you've just signed a German employment contract — or you're weighing an offer — the number that matters isn't the one in bold at the top. That's your gross salary (Brutto). What lands in your account is your net (Netto), and the gap between the two is larger than almost anyone expects the first time they see a German payslip.

The good news: the gap isn't random. It's the sum of a handful of clearly defined deductions — one income tax, one (rarely charged) surcharge, an optional church tax, and four social insurances. Once you can name them, your payslip stops being a wall of abbreviations and starts being something you can predict. This guide walks through each one, in plain English, with two worked examples you can open in the calculator.

The five things taken from your gross

Every euro that disappears between Brutto and Netto belongs to one of five buckets:

• Lohnsteuer — wage/income tax, by far the biggest line for most people.
• Solidaritätszuschlag ("Soli") — a 5.5% surcharge on your income tax, but only above a high threshold, so most employees now pay €0.
• Kirchensteuer — church tax, only if you're a registered member of a tax-collecting church. 8% of your income tax in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, 9% everywhere else.
• The four social insurances — pension, unemployment, health, and long-term care. You and your employer each pay roughly half.

That's it. Everything on your payslip rolls up into those five. Let's take them in order.

Income tax (Lohnsteuer)

Germany's income tax is progressive: the first slice of your income is tax-free, and each euro after that is taxed at a rising rate. The tax-free slice — the Grundfreibetrag — is €12,348 for 2026. Below that, you pay no income tax at all.

Above it, the rate climbs along a formula (the Einkommensteuertarif, §32a EStG) rather than in flat steps. In round terms: the marginal rate starts at 14% just above the Grundfreibetrag, rises through the mid-income range, hits 42% at €69,879 of taxable income, and reaches the top 45% ("Reichensteuer") at €277,826.

Your Steuerklasse (tax class, I–VI) doesn't change these rates — it changes how much tax your employer withholds each month, based on your marital and family situation. A single person with no children is class I; both examples below use it.

Solidaritätszuschlag: the surcharge most people no longer pay

The Soli is 5.5% of your income tax — but since a 2021 reform it only applies once your annual income tax crosses a Freigrenze of €20,350 (for a single filer). Below that, it's exactly €0; just above it, it phases in gradually rather than all at once.

In practice this makes the Soli a high-earner-only charge. As you'll see, even a €90,000 single salary doesn't trigger it — the income tax on it sits just under the threshold. You generally need taxable income high enough to produce more than €20,350 in income tax (very roughly €92,000+ gross at class I) before a single euro of Soli appears.

The four social insurances (Sozialversicherung)

These fund the German social safety net. Each has a total statutory rate split evenly between you and your employer — the percentages below are the employee half, which is what comes off your payslip:

• Rentenversicherung (pension): 9.30% — half of the 18.6% total.
• Arbeitslosenversicherung (unemployment): 1.30% — half of 2.6%.
• Krankenversicherung (health): 7.30% base — half of the 14.6% statutory rate — plus your share of your fund's Zusatzbeitrag (additional contribution). The Zusatzbeitrag averages about 2.9% in 2026, set individually by each Krankenkasse, and you pay half (≈1.45%) — so the typical total employee health rate is about 8.75%.
• Pflegeversicherung (long-term care): 2.40% for a childless employee. Parents pay less (a reduction per child); Saxony shifts a little more onto the employee. The childless surcharge is a flat +0.6%.

The ceiling you'll hit as a higher earner: the Beitragsbemessungsgrenze

Social contributions don't rise forever. Each insurance has a Beitragsbemessungsgrenze (contribution ceiling) — a salary level above which no further contributions are charged. For health and care, that ceiling is €69,750 in 2026; for pension and unemployment, it's higher, at €101,400.

This is why a higher salary feels less heavily deducted at the margin: above €69,750, your health and care contributions stop growing entirely, even as your income tax keeps climbing. The high-earner example below shows exactly this effect.

Worked example 1: €60,000, single, Berlin

Here's a class-I single employee on €60,000 gross, in Berlin, no church tax, no children, public health insurance. These are the engine's own figures — the same numbers the netleft calculator produces.

That's a 62.6% take-home rate: of every €100 gross, about €63 reaches your account. Note the Soli line is €0 — and the income tax (€9,389) is far below the €20,350 threshold, so it would be even on a considerably higher salary.

Worked example 2: €90,000, single, Berlin — and the ceiling in action

Now the same profile at €90,000 gross. Watch what happens to the two capped insurances.

Two things stand out. First, Soli is still €0 — even at €90,000, a single earner's income tax doesn't reach the Freigrenze. Second, health and care are calculated on €69,750, not €90,000: those two contributions barely rose versus the €60,000 case, because they're capped at the Beitragsbemessungsgrenze. The result is a 59.2% take-home rate — only about 3.4 points lower than the €60,000 earner, despite earning 50% more. That's the ceiling doing its work.

What changes your number

The examples above are the simplest case (single, no children, no church). Your own net moves with:

• Steuerklasse — III for a married sole earner withholds far less; V withholds more. (Tax classes affect monthly withholding, not your final annual tax.)
• Kirchensteuer — registered church members add 8%–9% of their income tax.
• Children — reduce your Pflegeversicherung rate and can raise tax-free allowances.
• Bundesland — only matters for church tax (8% in Bayern/Baden-Württemberg, 9% elsewhere) and a small Saxony quirk in care insurance.
• Private health insurance — replaces the public KV/PV lines with your own premium.

The fastest way to see your real number is to put your own gross in and adjust the inputs.

netleft exists to make exactly this calculation legible — in English, with the German terms kept intact so you can match them to your actual payslip. Put your gross in, toggle your situation, and watch each of these five deductions update in real time.