what gets taken off your pay in Germany ...

[percival]

I just found an old payslip of mine, and thought I would do some calculations.

Tax: 21.5%
Solidarity tax: 1.2%
Church tax: 1.9% (obligatory for Roman Catholics and Prostestants in Germany; if you don't pay church tax, you're not in the church)
Health insurance: 7.1% (mandatory - everybody who earns a salary has to have health insurance)
Old age care insurance: 0.9% (obligatory)
Pension: 10.5% (obligatory state pension)
Unemployment insurance: 1.2% (obligatory)

Total deductions: roughly 44%

And I wasn't a particularly high earner ... Pension and health care contributions will also have crept up in the mean time; remember that this is from August 2000.

Comments

[wang1961.livejournal.com]

My deductions in 2004 were 31%, and I am in top 20% of wage earners. And about 6% of that were my own private investments, so really to compare yours and mine side-by-side, we are talking 25% vs. 44%, except for me the German deductions would be what, more than 50% ?

The big difference is that many of the same benefits that you are buying from the government I am buying from private insurance companies - otherwise, the type of coverages sound alike.

Food for thought! What's it like in the UK?

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Yes, your deductions would be more like 50%. And since I was forced to buy my products from the state, I would have had to nod and smile as they kept increasing the pensionable age, and reducing the amout paid out. Basically, in Germany, they now expect you to buy private products on TOP of the 10.5% you pay for state provision.

In the UK, you give roughly a third of your income to the state if you're an average earner. And the pay slip is much easier to read - there's National Insurance, which covers everything, taxes, and if you have a pension through your employer, that is taken off, as well.

[wang1961.livejournal.com]

Lesson is - move out of Germany if you want to work for a living, I suppose? But go to Germany if you want to live off of the State?

[perceval.livejournal.com]

No - they've just tightened rules for drawing social security. Now, if you've been out of work for a year or longer and want to draw benefits, and if you own a flat that's larger than 65 quare metres (single) or double that (couple), you need to sell up, move out, and find something smaller. You also need to use up your savings first.

Grotesque.