Permy German Job

[sunnysan]

Looking at permy job in Berlin 65k.(Euros)

I have heard that DE taxation makes the UK look like a tax free zone, so I looked at a calculator and it seems that I would net about 42k / annum so about 36% (I used the 3 option for married/ wife not working) so when all is said and done about the same as fair Blighty

Does this sound about right? Rent and general cost of living seems way lower in DE.

Sunny "Auf weidersein" San

[chef]

one of the questions on registering in the country is "religion?" if you answer anything other than None then you are taxed a percentage of your income fo the church..

also, not sure if it applies to permies but health insurance is mandatory for freelancers

[alreadypacked]

Looking at permy job in Berlin 65k.(Euros)

I have heard that DE taxation makes the UK look like a tax free zone, so I looked at a calculator and it seems that I would net about 42k / annum so about 36% (I used the 3 option for married/ wife not working) so when all is said and done about the same as fair Blighty

Does this sound about right? Rent and general cost of living seems way lower in DE.

Sunny "Auf weidersein" San

I worked in Germany for a while, lived in Dusseldorf worked on client site in Frankfurt got paid day expenses 'per diem' tax free. Don't remember much else it was the last century.

[sasguru]

one of the questions on registering in the country is "religion?" if you answer anything other than None then you are taxed a percentage of your income fo the church..
also, not sure if it applies to permies but health insurance is mandatory for freelancers

Really? So they give money to the Jedi Knights and Church of the Spaghetti Monster if you specify those.

Cool.

[chef]

Really? So they give money to the Jedi Knights and Church of the Spaghetti Monster if you specify those.

Cool.

Not so sure they're on the list of "recognised" churches of the german government

[sunnysan]

Church

one of the questions on registering in the country is "religion?" if you answer anything other than None then you are taxed a percentage of your income fo the church..

also, not sure if it applies to permies but health insurance is mandatory for freelancers

I think it is about 8% of gross annual remuneration. This should cement my athiesm further although it seems the praying may be one of the only ways to secure a decent job these days.

I am more interested in hidden costs after income tax EG in the UK we pay £1000 + per annum in council tax on top of NI etc.

[d000hg]

one of the questions on registering in the country is "religion?" if you answer anything other than None then you are taxed a percentage of your income fo the church..

That's really weird, especially since I thought Germany was relatively secular, more so than the UK even.
I believe tithing is part of Christianity's teachings, but an official government-run system is bizarre in the extreme. I wonder if it means Germany has far fewer people claiming 'nominal religion' - e.g "I'm Roman Catholic because my mum is" or "I'm CofE because I was christened"?

[expat]

When I was in Hamburg I worked beside an American who had been forewarned and said religion "None". But he pissed off a German colleague who knew that his family had been RC, so he shopped the American to the Finanzamt, and the guy was done. Not a joke.

Live long and prosper. Oops.

[MrMark]

When I was in Hamburg I worked beside an American who had been forewarned and said religion "None". But he pissed off a German colleague who knew that his family had been RC, so he shopped the American to the Finanzamt, and the guy was done. Not a joke.

Live long and prosper. Oops.

But "had been" signifies the past. Surely he could have claimed to be an apostate? Unless the RC church still imposes death for this?

[SizeZero]

I believe a lot of that money goes towards providing 'very low cost' social housing and/or care for German pensioners? Not sure how true it is, but I'm sure it's distributed back into society somehow.