Hiring a Minijobber in a German GmbH or UG 2026: Employer's Setup Guide

Quick answer: registering a minijob in your GmbH

Here's the 2026 process: you need a free employer ID number (Betriebsnummer) from the Bundesagentur für Arbeit, a written employment contract, and an employer account at the Minijob-Zentrale. There you register the employee no later than the first working day, grant a SEPA direct debit mandate, and pay roughly 31 % flat-rate contributions on the wage each month. A maxed-out €603 minijob therefore costs your GmbH about €791 per month, and every contribution is deductible as a business expense.

Registration itself is free and takes under 10 minutes. The details, the current cost table, and the common mistakes are below.

What counts as a minijob in your GmbH in 2026?

A minijob (geringfügige Beschäftigung) is a part-time job in Germany capped at €603 per month in 2026. The cap moves with the statutory minimum wage of €13.90/hour: when minimum wage rises, the cap rises automatically. That means a maximum of about 43 working hours per month per minijobber.

The cap follows a fixed formula: minimum wage × 130 ÷ 3. At €13.90 that yields €602.33, rounded up to the €603 limit. When minimum wage climbs to €14.60 in 2027, the minijob cap moves up automatically. Across a full year a minijobber may earn up to €7,236, so individual months may exceed €603, as long as the annual average stays within the limit.

For a GmbH or UG, minijobs are convenient: you pay flat-rate contributions instead of running full payroll, your employee takes home almost the full amount, and as managing director you have less paperwork.

Geringfügig or kurzfristig: which type fits?

Two minijob types exist, and they differ fundamentally:

For ongoing help (a 10-hour-a-week back-office assistant), use the low-wage minijob. For seasonal or project work, use short-term employment: there is no earnings cap and you pay no social contributions, but it must not be the employee's main occupation and is strictly limited to 70 working days per calendar year.

Employer requirements before you can hire

Before signing on a minijobber, you'll need:

• An employer ID number (Betriebsnummer) from the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (free, online at arbeitsagentur.de)

• A written employment contract with hours, pay, and duties

• The employee's social security card and tax ID (Steuer-ID)

• A SEPA direct debit mandate for the flat-rate contributions

For new GmbHs, request the Betriebsnummer right after your entry in the commercial register.

Register the minijob with Minijob-Zentrale: step by step

Registration runs entirely through Minijob-Zentrale (a unit of Knappschaft Bahn-See):

1. Open an employer account at minijob-zentrale.de

2. Submit a SEPA direct debit authorization

3. Register the employee no later than 6 weeks after start, ideally on day one

4. Choose your wage tax model: 2 % flat tax or individual taxation via tax class

5. File the monthly contribution report and let the SEPA debit run; the wage tax filing under the flat-rate model goes through the Minijob-Zentrale directly

Registration is free and takes under 10 minutes if your data is ready. You must also document working time: under the minimum-wage law you record the start, end, and duration of each day's hours within 7 days and keep the records for 2 years.

What does a minijob cost a GmbH in 2026?

For a full €603 minijob, a GmbH as a commercial employer owes these flat-rate contributions:

New in 2026: levy U1 was cut from 1.1 % to 0.80 % on 1 January, making the minijob slightly cheaper for employers. On top comes accident insurance, whose rate varies by the relevant Berufsgenossenschaft (often around 1.3 %). Unlike a regular hire, you don't pay unemployment or care insurance contributions. Every flat contribution is fully deductible as a business expense.

Who pays the pension contribution?

The GmbH pays the 15 % pension insurance flat. But the full pension rate is 18.6 %; the 3.6 % difference is the minijobber's own share (about €21.71 on a €603 wage), unless they opt out.

By default every minijobber is subject to pension insurance. An employee who doesn't want to pay the share hands you a written exemption request (Befreiungsantrag); you then withhold only the flat 15 %. The upside of the mandatory contributions: full pension entitlements plus benefits like rehabilitation or reduced-earning-capacity pension.

New from 1 July 2026: an exemption once declared can be revoked once. Anyone who opted out earlier can now return to full pension insurance for the first time; the revocation must be requested through the employer and applies only to future periods. With multiple minijobs, the decision applies uniformly to all of them.

Bookkeeping: accounts and postings

In SKR04 you book the minijob to two accounts: 4140 "Löhne für Minijobber" for gross wages, and 4150 "Pauschale Abgaben für Minijobber" for the contributions to Minijob-Zentrale. In SKR03 those are accounts 4110 and 4118.

Important: a GmbH does not file the flat 2 % wage tax through the regular Lohnsteueranmeldung; everything runs through the Minijob-Zentrale directly, removing one filing step from your monthly process. The monthly Minijob-Zentrale debit shows up as one line on your business account; you split it into wages and contributions in your books.

Common mistakes with minijobs in a GmbH

• Wage too high: the €603 cap is strict; going over it permanently breaks the minijob status

• Multiple unreported minijobs: the employee must disclose every running minijob, or social insurance kicks in

• Missing contract: a written employment contract is mandatory, or you risk problems similar to false self-employment

• Sub-minimum wage: €13.90/hour is the floor, no exceptions

• No working-time records: missing hour logs are a frequent finding in customs (Zoll) audits

• Director-shareholder as minijobber: a GmbH managing director who is also a shareholder cannot register himself as a minijobber; the tax office treats this as misuse

Frequently asked questions

Can a UG hire a minijobber? Yes. The same rules apply to the UG (haftungsbeschränkt) as to the GmbH: as a corporation it is a commercial employer and pays the full flat contributions of about 31 %.

Can a minijobber earn more than €603? Only occasionally and unforeseeably (e.g. covering for a sick colleague) in at most 2 calendar months per year. Across the year the average must stay at or below €603 (the €7,236 annual limit).

Can I hire a family member as a minijobber? Yes, if the employment is structured as it would be between strangers: a written contract, market-rate pay, actual work performed, and payment into the relative's own account. Otherwise the tax office won't accept the business expense.

What's the difference from a midijob? A midijob pays between €603.01 and €2,000. The employee is then fully subject to social insurance but pays reduced employee contributions; the flat minijob rules no longer apply.

Do I have to produce a payslip for a minijobber? Yes, a monthly payslip is mandatory even for a minijob. In practice it's lean, because the contributions run flat through the Minijob-Zentrale.

Conclusion

A minijob is the simplest way to hire in your GmbH or UG: flat contributions instead of full payroll, fast registration, predictable cost. Watch the €603 cap, register on time with the Minijob-Zentrale, document working time, and book the contributions cleanly.

Norman recognises minijob debits automatically when you import bank transactions and posts them to the correct account. You enter the hours once a month and the AI bookkeeping does the rest, letting you stay compliant without an external payroll office.