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.
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.
In plain language
This is a number in your electronic wage tax records — usually 0,5 per child, because both parents share the allowance. It has a surprising effect: it does not change your monthly wage tax at all. It only lowers the solidarity surcharge and the church tax. The real benefit comes later, in the tax return, when the tax office compares whether child benefit or the allowance is better for you.
In detail
The child allowance count (ZKF) comes from the ELStAM records. In the wage tax deduction it produces a separate base for the surcharge taxes: under § 51a (2) EStG and § 3 (2) SolZG, the solidarity surcharge and church tax are calculated from a notional wage tax in which the allowances under § 32 (6) EStG have already been deducted. The wage tax itself stays the same — the child allowance is not built into the wage tax scale, because child benefit is paid monthly instead. Only the annual assessment weighs the two against each other in the more-favourable test of § 31 EStG. In tax class IV each parent carries 0,5 per child; in class III or for single parents the full count can be recorded.
Worked example
4.000 € gross, tax class 1, North Rhine-Westphalia, liable to church tax: the wage tax is 524,50 € in every case. The church tax, however, falls from 47,20 € (ZKF 0) to 36,30 € (ZKF 0,5) and to 26,02 € (ZKF 1). A full child allowance is therefore worth 21,18 € a month — and not one cent of it comes through the wage tax.
In brief
In tax class IV each parent carries 0,5 per child.
Legal basis: § 32 Abs. 6 EStG · as at 2026