Going self-employed in Germany: what changes financially?

Health insurance, pension insurance, income tax: what really changes financially when you go self-employed. Two freelancer profiles with concrete model figures.

Self-employment in Germany means more freedom, and more responsibility for things that run automatically when you're employed. Health insurance, pension insurance, income tax, advance payments: what an employer handles for employees lands on you from your first day as a freelancer. Most people expect considerably less to be left at the end of the month. At the same gross, that's often not true. The real difference lies elsewhere, and it shows up on no bank statement.

The figures below are model calculations for 2026. What you actually pay depends on your income, your health insurance, and your professional group. Miravel calculates with your numbers.

Health insurance: no longer a half measure

• As an employee you pay around half the contribution (the health insurance share, around 8.7%), the employer adds the other half. As a self-employed person you pay both halves: the full contribution rate of around 17.5% (14.6% general plus around 2.9% supplementary contribution, as of 2026)
• Minimum contribution in the statutory health insurance: around €230 a month for health insurance alone, with long-term care insurance around €286. Even if you earn little
• At €60,000 annual profit: around €1,085 a month for health and long-term care insurance combined
• At €30,000 annual profit: around €543 a month. Less, but still your full share
• Alternative: private health insurance. Often cheaper to start with (from around €350), but with rising premiums in old age and no free family insurance

Pension insurance: optional, or compulsory?

• Most self-employed people aren't subject to compulsory pension insurance. You build up no statutory pension points, but you also pay no contributions
• Exceptions: certain professional groups are compulsory members (tradespeople, teachers, care staff, midwives, artists through the Künstlersozialkasse, the artists' social insurance fund)
• Paying in voluntarily is possible: in 2026 between €112.16 (minimum contribution) and €1,571.70 a month (maximum contribution)
• Anyone who doesn't pay in has no statutory pension from their self-employed years. The gap has to be closed privately

Income tax and advance payments: due quarterly

• As an employee, the employer deducts the wage tax monthly. As a self-employed person, you get everything first and pay income tax advance payments to the Finanzamt (tax office) four times a year (15 March, 15 June, 15 September, 15 December)
• Income tax on profit: a progressive scale. 0% up to the basic allowance of €12,348 (2026), then 14% to 42%, the top rate from around €69,879
• At €60,000 annual profit in tax class I: around €14,200 income tax on the raw profit (around 24%). Because your health and long-term care insurance is deductible as a special expense (§ 10 EStG), the tax in practice falls to around €9,500 (around 16%). The examples of Nina and Tom below work the same way.
• Trade tax (Gewerbesteuer) only applies to traders, not to freelancers (§ 18 EStG). Doctors, lawyers, engineers, many IT freelancers pay no trade tax
• Important: build reserves for tax back-payments. Set aside at least 30% of profit straight away

Two examples with concrete numbers

Nina, 32, an IT freelancer in München, annual profit €72,000. She's a freelancer, so she pays no trade tax. Health and long-term care insurance: around €1,260 a month. Income tax: around €13,040 a year. Around €3,650 a month is left available. An employee with the same gross pay in tax class I keeps around €3,640 net. So Nina is practically level, even around €10 above. What she pays double on health insurance, she saves elsewhere: the pension and unemployment contributions that, for employees, employee and employer share between them, Nina keeps in full. It's just that this money builds no statutory pension and doesn't protect her against unemployment.

Tom, 29, a photographer in Berlin, annual profit €30,000, also a freelancer. Health and long-term care insurance: around €543 a month. Income tax: around €2,455 a year. Around €1,750 a month is left available. An employee on €30,000 gross keeps around €1,770. So Tom is around €16 below that, practically level. Here too the net gap is small. What's missing isn't the money each month, but the pension and unemployment insurance that an employee builds up on the side.

What most people only notice after the first year

• VAT: above €25,000 annual turnover (the small-business threshold), VAT has to be charged and paid over. This money is never yours
• No continued pay when ill: as a self-employed person you have no sick pay in the first weeks. Until the statutory health insurance sick pay kicks in (from the 7th week of illness), the income falls away
• No unemployment benefit I: the self-employed pay no contributions to unemployment insurance and usually have no ALG I entitlement when they give up self-employment
• Bookkeeping and tax advice: €1,500 to €3,000 a year. Deductible, but to be covered out of liquidity at first

The bottom line: at the same gross, as a self-employed person you often take roughly the same amount home. The price isn't on the bank statement. You now carry the pension and the protection against unemployment yourself. What an employer otherwise pays in on the side, you have to actively replace, or the gap appears right here.

Miravel simulates what self-employment means concretely for your household: household take-home pay, pension development, and long-term protection. Free, no account, right in your browser.