Germany - income, tax etc. how much is enough?

[marjean]

It's possible we'll be moving to Germany in the Autumn. My dh will be earning a minimum of 37,000 Euro. We have 3 dd under 5.

Can anyone let me know what standard of living is possible on this salary? And information on the tax rate and benefits we may be entitled to?

Thanks so much

Hm, that's difficult to answer. I think taxation will be about 40%. Your standard of living really depends on the area you move to - Munich will cost you a small fortune while most cities and towns in the east or in rural areas will be a lot cheaper.

IMHO, healthcare is better in Germany, and childcare is cheaper. You get a tax rebate if you're married and child benefit but I don't know how much this will be. Sorry this is only very rough information. I'm sure you can find more detailed information by entering Kindergeld Germany into your favourite search engine...

Good luck! :-)

As MrsDragon says, it very much depends on which area of Germany.

We lived near Düsseldorf, where it was possible to rent a semi-detached house for around ?700 - 900 (plus water/electricity etc).

Other areas you could get a flat or house cheaper, but for 4 bedrooms you are going to be at least ?500. If you are going to Munich, at least ?1000.

You can apply for childrens allowance (Kindergeld) which is ?168 for first two children, then ?190 for third, which brings an extra ?558.

If only your DH works, then he will be in a tax bracket III, so will not be taxed much. I used this tax calculator and came to a monthly net salary of ?1868.00. That is after payment of tax, health, unemployment, pension contributions.

So you would have around ?2500. Which is an ok wage for Germany, but really very much depends on where you will be located.

Child care costs vary greatly. Where we lived the Kindergarten costs were adjusted so that those on lower wage paid less. And you only paid for the first child, the others were free.

You might get other benefits such as Wohngeld. I think that depends on where you live and how much your rent is. I would imagine that you would only get this if you were to live in an area where rents are high. I had a look at a program that works that out and reckon you might get another ?200 - but as I said, this very much depends on earnings and rent.

May I ask what your DH does? If you don't want to put it on here, PM me and I can give you a better idea if that is a normal wage for that job.

Thanks so much for your replies - you've given a lot of useful information, particularly given that my op was quite vague.

MmeLindt - my dh will be a teacher in a private school.

The area we'll be moving to is in Bavaria - near Augsburg. I have never been, and can only get so much information from the wikipedia! If you can give me any thoughts on this area, that would be great.

Thanks again

Uff. Augsburg.

Absolutely lovely area, but quite expensive. Close to Munich. You are looking at around ?1000 for a flat/house, I would expect. Unless you are willing to take something smaller.

Is it a language school? Normally teachers would start at a salary higher than that, but that is a civil servant contract, which of course he would not have at a private school.

Tbh, I think it is quite a low salary for that area when you take the cost of living into account. It really depends on how you live at present.

Germans tend to rent rather than buy and you will have to reckon with 2 months rent as a deposit, plus perhaps having to pay "Ablöse" - for the kitchen - you "buy" the kitchen from the previous tenant.

If you are willing to live slightly outside of Augsburg then you might find a flat/house cheaper.

I have a friend from Augsburg so I can ask her for advice if you need more info about the area. I know that it is lovely - close to the mountains and to Munich.

Thanks for that - I get the impression that it's lovely and have been looking (on immoscout24 or something like that) at flats for around 1000 Euros/month. I thought that seemed OK to be in the centre of things - I would want to stay in the city centre to start with, I think.

Salary-wise, it's 37K - 50K. I just want to plan for worst-case scenario! Nice to know we could do it if we had to though.

It would be great if you could ask your friend about good areas and housing. Ideally, I'd like a house with some outside space but when I've found places, I've no idea if it's in an OK area or not. Dh communte would be to the north of the city, so ideally something in that direction if possible. However, I do think the school gives help with relocation, so please don't go out of your way to answer all my queries - I think the important thing is deciding whether we go or not - there's another job offer from a school in Sweden, so everything's up in the air at the moment!

Ah, that is good, that the 37k is on the lower end of the scale. DH said, "tell them not to go to Augsburg for 37k" (he is German) and was quite worried that you would struggle.

Cost of living is slightly higher than in UK at the moment, but ? is strong against the £ so that helps. I do most of my clothes shopping in UK. A lot of the bigger companies send to Germany (M&S, Boden, - even Lakeland!)

Will email friend and ask. Her parents still live South of Augsburg. I would imagine that North of Augsburg would be slightly cheaper than south, as it is further from Munich. Donauwörth is lovely, but might be too far for your DH to travel.

All good to know. Germany coming out on top at the moment in our (constant) agonising, soul-searching discussions! Would be great to hear more about Augsburg - I'll take a look at Donauworth. Thanks for your help.