Tax calculator for freelancers in Germany

Single and without children, you pay about €9,626 income tax on €60,000 profit, with no solidarity surcharge yet. With statutory insurance, about €12,660 goes to health and long-term care insurance. About €37,714 is left. Calculated as a freelancer, without church tax.

As a single freelancer with €60,000 profit, about €9,624 a year for income tax and solidarity surcharge, so about €802 a month. The calculator shows the amount for your figures. Health insurance comes on top, but you pay it monthly to your fund. As a trader, add the trade tax left after the credit. Set the VAT on your invoices aside separately.

Subtract your business expenses from your revenue to get your profit. Deduct health and long-term care insurance from it. Apply the 2026 income tax tariff to the rest: income up to €12,348 stays tax-free, then the rate rises from 14% to 42%, and from €277,826 it is 45%. If your income tax exceeds €20,350 (€40,700 for married couples), the solidarity surcharge applies on top.

Freelancers in liberal professions such as doctors, lawyers, journalists or translators (§ 18 EStG) pay no trade tax. Traders pay it on profit above the €24,500 allowance: 3.5% of it times the municipality's multiplier. Four times this base amount is credited against income tax (§ 35 EStG), so up to a multiplier of 400% the credit usually offsets the trade tax in full. Choose “Trade (Gewerbe)” in the calculator to include both.

Profit is revenue minus business expenses. As a freelancer or small trader you usually work it out with the cash-basis EÜR (§ 4 (3) EStG): income and expenses count in the year the money moves. Private costs, income tax and trade tax do not reduce your profit.

This page is designed for freelancers, solo self-employed operators, and other independent workers in Germany who want a practical estimate of their likely income tax exposure.

No. The interactive calculator supports planning, not an official tax assessment or individual review against official guidance and professional advice.

The most useful inputs are annual revenue, deductible business expenses, any other income, tax prepayments already made, and personal factors such as insurance or allowances.

For self-employed taxpayers, taxable income is not the same as top-line revenue. The more accurately you separate revenue from deductible expenses, the more meaningful the estimate becomes.

Income tax under the 2026 tariff, the solidarity surcharge, for traders the trade tax with its credit, and statutory health and long-term care insurance: 14% reduced contribution rate, 2.9% average additional contribution and 3.6% long-term care insurance, 4.2% without children. Church tax, VAT, pension insurance and private health insurance are not included.