Social security contributions are contributions towards the financing of the statutory Social security. For employees subject to compulsory insurance, the total social security contribution includes, in particular, contributions to health, long-term care and Pension insurance as well as employment promotion.
What are social security contributions?
Social security contributions are used to finance various branches of the Social security.
For employees, the obligation to pay contributions depends, among other things, on which insurance branches are subject to compulsory insurance and which Remuneration is subject to contributions under social security law.
Which contributions are part of the total social security contribution?
For employees with compulsory insurance, the statutory total social security contribution generally comprises contributions to the following areas:
- statutory health insurance
- Social care insurance
- Statutory pension insurance
- Employment promotion or Unemployment insurance
Contributions to the statutory Accident insurance scheme, on the other hand, are not included in the total social security contribution. They are generally paid by the employer on behalf of employees and are levied in accordance with specific statutory provisions.
Who bears the Social security contributions?
For standard employment relationships subject to compulsory insurance, contributions to health, long-term care, pension and Unemployment insurance insurance are generally shared by employees and employers.
However, the exact distribution depends on the respective branch of insurance and the employment situation. Therefore, employee shares and Employer contribution are not identical in all cases.
The employer pays the total social security contribution to the responsible collection agency. This also includes the share of the contribution to be borne by the employee.
How are Social security contributions calculated?
For employees, the contribution-based Remuneration is an essential basis for calculating contributions. In the Payroll is the remuneration relevant for social security law often referred to as gross social security salary depicted.
Not every remuneration component has to be subject to contributions in the same way. Which income is taken into account depends on the regulations under social security law.
contributory income is also only subject to contributions up to the respective applicable Contribution assessment limit (BBG) taken into account.
Social security contributions and service charges – what is the difference?
In addition to the actual Sozialversicherungsbeiträgen, employers can pay other statutory levies.
Such levies are to be distinguished from the contributions comprising the overall social security contribution. They are based on separate statutory provisions and serve other financing purposes.
In short: Sickness, care, pension and Arbeitslosenversicherung contributions generally form the total social security contribution. Unfallversicherung contributions and other employer levies are treated separately from this.
