Number format: this calculator uses German notation throughout — a comma is the decimal separator and a dot groups thousands. “1.234,56” means one thousand two hundred thirty-four euros and fifty-six cents. The figures come from German tax law, so they are shown the way German authorities write them.
Gross to net 2026
For employees on a regular monthly salary. The Lohnsteuer is not reimplemented from a formula: it is generated from the official program flow chart of the German Federal Ministry of Finance, and the results are checked against the ministry's own calculator.
Terms used on this page
Each term has its own page with a plain-language explanation, the technical detail and a worked example.
- Child allowance count (Kinderfreibeträge) — A figure from the ELStAM records; it does not reduce the wage tax itself, only the solidarity surcharge and church tax.
- Childless surcharge in long-term care insurance (Kinderlosenzuschlag) — Childless people aged 23 and over pay 0,6 points more for long-term care insurance, with no employer share.
- Children in total — Anyone who has ever had a child pays no childless surcharge to long-term care insurance, for life.
- Children under 25 — For each child from the second to the fifth, the long-term care contribution falls by 0,25 contribution rate points.
- Church tax rate (Kirchensteuersatz) — Pre-filled with the rate of the state selected — eight percent in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, nine elsewhere. Full article →
- Civil service medical allowance rate (Beihilfebemessungssatz) — The share of medical costs borne by the employer; the remainder is covered by private insurance.
- Contribution assessment ceiling (Beitragsbemessungsgrenze) — The pay up to which social security contributions are calculated — anything above it is contribution-free.
- Federal state of the workplace (Betriebsstätte) — In the wage tax deduction the church tax rate of the employer's location applies, not that of your home address.
- Insurer-specific supplementary rate (Zusatzbeitrag) — Every health insurer sets it for itself; the published average rate is only a default. Full article →
- Marginal and average burden (Grenz- und Durchschnittsbelastung) — The average burden is the share deducted from your whole pay; the marginal burden, the share of each additional euro.
- Minijob (marginal employment) — Employment up to 603 € a month: almost free of tax and contributions for employees; the employer pays flat rates.
- One-off payment (sonstiger Bezug) — One-off payments such as a 13th salary or a bonus, taxed by the annual-scale method, not like regular pay.
- Solidarity surcharge (Solidaritätszuschlag) — A 5,5 % surcharge on income or wage tax; since 2021 only high incomes pay it.
- Tax class (Steuerklasse) — Assigns the wage tax deduction to your family situation and determines which allowances are already taken into account each month. Full article →
- Transition zone (Übergangsbereich, “Midijob”) — Monthly pay between 603,01 € and 2.000 €: employees pay reduced social contributions yet earn full pension entitlements.
- Type of employment (Beschäftigungsverhältnis) — Determines social security liability as a whole — civil servants, judges and soldiers pay neither pension nor unemployment contributions.
How the figures are calculated
The wage tax comes from the official program, not from a formula
The German Federal Ministry of Finance publishes a Programmablaufplan every year — a machine-readable description of the wage tax calculation that every payroll run in Germany must follow. This calculator translates the 2026 plan directly into code instead of reimplementing the formula. The difference is not academic: the tax scale under § 32a EStG has kinks, rounding rules to whole euros and special cases for the pension expense allowance that a reimplemented formula regularly misses by a few euros.
Social security contributions run separately and have their own ceilings
Health, long-term care, pension and unemployment insurance are not calculated on taxable income but on gross pay — and each only up to its contribution assessment ceiling. For health and long-term care that ceiling is lower in 2026 than for pension and unemployment insurance. So the burden does not rise evenly: above the ceilings, net pay suddenly grows faster.
Every deduction names its legal basis
In the derivation below the result, every line carries its source — from the employee standard deduction (§ 9a EStG) through the childless surcharge to long-term care insurance (§ 55 (3) SGB XI) to the exemption limit for the solidarity surcharge. If you do not believe a figure, you can check it against the statute.
Example: 4.000 € gross, tax class 1, North Rhine-Westphalia
| Gross pay per month | 4.000,00 € |
|---|---|
| Net pay per month | 2.605,50 € |
| Tax and social security | 1.394,50 € |
Roughly 35 % goes out — and that share grows with the salary, because the tax scale is progressive. So if you want to know what is left of a pay rise, do not take the average; compare two figures.
What this calculator does not cover
Pretending to be complete is the costliest mistake a financial calculator can make. These points are deliberately absent — either because they need details this page does not ask for, or because they cannot be substantiated in general terms:
- Individual allowances under § 39a EStG (for high employment expenses or disability, for example) recorded on your tax record. They reduce the wage tax but depend on the individual case.
- Church tax capping. Several states cap church tax at a share of income. The capping rates are on file but are not calculated — they cannot be applied in a substantiated way without further detail.
- The individual private health insurance premium. With private cover it is entered, not estimated: it depends on the age at entry, the tariff and the health assessment.
Related calculators
- Net to gross — the other way round: which gross salary produces the net figure I want?
- Income tax for the year — what the annual assessment produces — a refund or a payment due
- Health insurer supplementary rates — the supplementary rate feeds straight into this calculation
- Salary sacrifice — how much net pay a company pension contribution costs
Ready answers for common salaries
For the most common gross amounts there is a page of its own with the finished result — including a comparison of all tax classes.