Gehaltswaage

Tax classes

Your tax class (Steuerklasse) decides how much wage tax the employer withholds each month. Germany has six classes (I to VI); the calculator currently handles classes I, III and IV – the others are planned for a later stage and are explained here.

What the tax class is for

The tax class (in German, the Lohnsteuerklasse) is a rule for the monthly deduction, not for the final tax. It sets which allowances your employer already folds into the wage tax withheld in the current month – the employee lump sum (1.230 € a year), the special-expenses lump sum (36 €) and, depending on the class, further amounts. From those allowances and the tariff of § 32a EStG follows how much comes off the gross each month.

The point most often misread: the tax class mainly shifts when you pay, not how much a household bears across the year. Wage tax withheld in excess or short is reconciled at the assessment. A class that deducts little therefore does not automatically mean less tax – at first it means only a higher monthly net, settled up later.

The six classes at a glance

Germany has six wage-tax classes. They differ in which allowances feed into the monthly deduction and in the pattern by which the tariff is applied.

  • Class I – for single, permanently separated and widowed people with no further relief. The plain single tariff with the basic allowance (12.348 €).
  • Class II – like I, plus the relief amount for single parents (4.260 € a year, § 24b EStG) for lone parents with a child in the household.
  • Class III – for the sole or main earner in a marriage. It applies income splitting, so the basic allowance counts twice over; it is always paired with the other partner's class V.
  • Class IV – for spouses who earn similar amounts. Each is taxed on the plain single tariff – without doubling the basic allowance, that is, exactly as in class I.
  • Class V – the counterpart to III for the lower-earning partner, with its own formula under § 39b EStG.
  • Class VI – for a second and any further employment. No allowances, and therefore the highest monthly deduction.

III and IV: why splitting makes the difference

The most striking difference in the calculator sits between class III and class IV – and it has exactly one cause: income splitting. In class III the tariff of § 32a EStG is applied to half the income and the result then doubled (the factor KZTAB in the § 39b procedure). That makes the basic allowance effectively double: 24.696 € instead of 12.348 €. The exemption threshold for the solidarity surcharge doubles to match (40.700 € as against 20.350 €).

Class IV does without that doubling. It applies the same plain single tariff as class I, with the basic allowance counted once (12.348 €). In the monthly withholding formula, class IV and class I are therefore identical – the same salary yields the same wage tax.

An example from the calculator. On a gross of 3.500 € a month, in class I and in class IV the employer withholds 406 € of wage tax each – the net is 2.333 €. In class III, on the same gross, it is only 110 € of wage tax, and the net rises to 2.629 €. Same salary, different monthly deduction – from the splitting alone.

The lower deduction in class III is only right for the household, though, if the other partner is in class V: the III/V combination shifts tax into the main earner's monthly payslip and reconciles it at the (then mandatory) annual assessment. So do not read the higher monthly net in class III as “less tax” – read it as a different distribution across the year.

What the calculator computes – and what it does not

In the calculator you can see all six classes in the tax-class selector, but it currently computes classes I, III and IV. Classes II, V and VI appear in the selector but are disabled; a note explains that they are not yet priced here.

Class II is deferred because it has to build the relief amount for single parents (4.260 € a year, § 24b EStG) into the deduction as a further allowance – a step this stage does not yet model. Classes V and VI follow their own formula under § 39b EStG – V with a minimum tax and its own bend points, VI with no allowances at all – a fundamentally different computation from the plain tariff (I/IV) and from splitting (III). They are therefore deliberately not part of v1.

Below the Midijob ceiling (2.000 €) the calculator does not compute at all: marginal employment (Minijob) and the transition band (Midijob) have their own contribution rules. Instead of a wrong number it shows a calm explanation there and points to the Minijob and Midijob page. Price the class you select in the gross-to-net calculator above.

Frequently asked questions