Your German payslip, line by line

A German payslip, or Gehaltsabrechnung, explained line by line in English — from Steuerbrutto to Auszahlungsbetrag, so you can check yours.

It arrives in German, dense with abbreviations, and the number at the bottom is a lot smaller than the one in your contract.

The rates themselves live on one page. Every percentage and threshold for 2026 — tax, the four social insurances, the ceilings — is on salaries and pay, checked each January. This page explains where each one appears on the slip, and links there for the numbers.

What it is called, and whether you get one

It goes by several names: Gehaltsabrechnung, Lohnabrechnung, Verdienstabrechnung or, in the regulation, Entgeltbescheinigung. They mean the same thing.

Your employer must give you one in text form when it pays you, showing the period and how your pay was made up — every allowance, bonus and deduction.^[1] Text form means a PDF or a portal download is enough; it does not have to be on paper. If nothing changed since the last correct payslip, the employer does not have to issue a new one,^[1] so a quiet month may bring no slip at all.

A regulation, the Entgeltbescheinigungsverordnung, sets the minimum content — which is why payslips from different employers look so alike.^[2]

The top: who, when, and the settings

Before any money, the slip lists the details every calculation below depends on:^[2]

• Your employer's and your own name and address, and your date of birth.
• Abrechnungszeitraum — the period, usually one calendar month.
• Eintritt / Austritt — your start date, and an end date if there is one.
• Steuer-ID — your personal tax identification number. The after you arrive guide explains where it comes from.
• Versicherungsnummer (or SV-Nummer) — your social insurance number.
• Steuerklasse — your tax class. Check this first: a wrong class is the most common reason a first payslip looks badly off. What each class means is on salaries and pay.
• Kinderfreibeträge — child allowances, if any.
• Konfession or KiSt — church-tax status: whether you are recorded as a member of a church that levies church tax. If it looks wrong, ask your payroll team where the setting came from.
• Krankenkasse — your health insurer.^[2] See health insurance.
• Beitragsgruppenschlüssel — a four-digit code for which insurances you pay into, in the order health, pension, unemployment, long-term care. For an ordinary employee insured in all four it reads 1111.^[3]

The middle: gross pay, three ways

The slip lists each payment separately — regular pay, overtime, a one-off bonus, holiday pay — and then totals it in up to three different ways:^[2]

• Gesamtbrutto — everything, before anything comes off.
• Steuerbrutto — the part that is taxed.
• SV-Brutto — the part social insurance is charged on.

They can differ, because some payments are treated differently for tax and for social insurance — which is why the regulation asks for all three.^[2] And above the contribution ceilings — listed on salaries and pay — the social insurance contributions stop rising while income tax does not.^[4]

The deductions: tax

Three lines, all calculated from the Steuerbrutto:^[2]

• LSt — Lohnsteuer, income tax, withheld monthly according to your tax class.
• SolZ — the solidarity surcharge. For most employees today it is 0; it now affects higher earners only.^[5]
• KiSt — church tax, only if you are registered as a member of a church that levies it.^[6]

The deductions: social insurance

Four lines, your half of each:^[2]

• KV — Krankenversicherung, health insurance, including your share of your insurer's additional rate.
• RV — Rentenversicherung, pension.
• AV — Arbeitslosenversicherung, unemployment.
• PV — Pflegeversicherung, long-term care. If you are 23 or over and have no children, this line is higher: the childless surcharge is yours alone, with no employer half.^[7]

Your employer pays its own half on top, and it does not reduce your pay — some slips show it for information, labelled AG-Anteil.

The bottom: net pay, and the payout

• Netto (Nettoentgelt) — gross minus tax and social insurance.
• Auszahlungsbetrag — what is actually transferred.^[2] It can differ from the net if something else comes off afterwards — a company bike, a meal allowance, capital-forming payments (VL or VWL) — or is added.

What to check on the first one

1. Tax class and child allowances — the two settings most often wrong at the start.
2. Church tax — if you did not mean to register as a member, the KiSt line is where you find out.
3. Health insurer — the one you chose, not a default.
4. Start date — a first month is often paid for part of a month.
5. Gross — against your contract, divided by twelve (or by the number of salaries the contract promises).

If something looks wrong, ask your payroll or HR team first. Withholding is provisional: too much income tax taken during the year usually comes back through the tax return, which salaries and pay explains.

What we cannot do

We cannot read or check your payslip, and we never see anything about your employment. This page is general information, not tax advice.

This guide is about Germany. Austria and Switzerland pay and deduct differently. See working in Austria and working in Switzerland.

Where to check

• § 108 of the Trade Regulation Act — the duty to issue a payslip (German)
• The Payslip Regulation, § 1 — what a payslip must show (German)
• Salaries and pay — this site's page with the 2026 rates

Checked on 28 September 2026 against the sources below. Payslip layouts differ from one payroll system to the next; the lines and the rules behind them do not.