Your first German payslip carries a single digit, and that digit decides several hundred euros a month. Which tax class am I in? The question usually comes up when something in life changes. After a wedding, after a child is born, when a second job starts or after a separation. The good news is that you do not have to guess. Your class is printed on the payslip, it is filed electronically with the tax office, and in many cases you can change it. Here you get both: the overview of all six classes and the short route to your own.
The key points at a glance:
- Germany has six tax classes. Which one applies to you depends on your marital status and on whether you hold more than one job.
- Your current class appears on every payslip, usually abbreviated as “StKl”. Online you find it in your ELSTER account under the electronic wage tax deduction features (ELStAM).
- The tax class only steers the monthly wage tax deduction. How much income tax you actually owe for the year is settled by the tax return.
- Married couples choose between 4/4, 3/5 and 4/4 with a factor. Despite many headlines, tax classes 3 and 5 are still available.
- You apply for a change at the tax office, usually online. For the current year the application has to arrive by 30 November.
What is a tax class and why does it matter?
The tax class is the sorting your employer uses to work out how much wage tax to withhold from your gross salary each month. It is set out in § 38b EStG. Each class carries a specific package of allowances, and the bigger that package, the less wage tax comes off. That is the whole mechanism behind it.
One point matters most in any explanation of German tax classes, and it is easy to miss: the class does not change what you owe. It changes when you pay it. Across the year a favourable class means you pay less up front and keep more net. An unfavourable one means you overpay and get the difference back later. The final calculation happens in the tax return, and there only your annual income counts.
Choosing well is still worth it. Anyone handing over €200 too much each month lends the state money interest-free for a year. Wage replacement benefits hang on it too: parental allowance, sick pay and unemployment benefit are calculated from net pay.
Which tax class am I in? Overview of all German tax classes
Before hunting for your own class, the overview helps. The tax classes are numbered 1 to 6 and cover every situation, from single to a third side job. Assignment runs almost automatically, because the tax office knows your marital status from the population register. You only become active yourself for tax class 2 as a single parent and when changing the combination as a married couple.
Tax classes 1 to 6 at a glance
The six tax classes in Germany differ mainly in which allowances are already taken into account during the month. Officially they are called wage tax classes, because they concern the wage tax deduction alone. The most important allowance is the basic tax-free allowance, which in 2026 stands at €12,348 a year. On top come the employee lump sum of €1,230 and the special expenses lump sum. This table shows who belongs where.
| Class | Who belongs here | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Single, divorced and widowed people from the second year on, spouses living permanently apart | basic allowance, employee lump sum, pension lump sum |
| 2 | Single parents with at least one child in the household and entitlement to child benefit | everything from class 1 plus the relief amount of €4,260 |
| 3 | Married people on the clearly higher salary if the partner takes class 5; widowed people in the year of death and the following year | double basic allowance of €24,696 |
| 4 | Married couples on similar salaries, the default after the wedding | basic allowance per person, as in class 1 |
| 5 | Married people on the lower salary if the partner holds class 3 | no basic allowance, only the lump sums |
| 6 | Anyone with a second or further job, regardless of marital status | no allowances, highest deduction |
In short: classes 1 and 4 are the normal cases, class 2 rewards single parents, and 3 and 5 always belong together as a pair. Class 6 is not a punishment, only the tax office taking precautions on a second salary. Wage tax you overpaid is refunded once you file.
Which tax class do I have? How to find out
First a clarification that saves a lot of confusion: wage tax class and tax class mean the same thing. So anyone asking which wage tax class do I have is looking for exactly the same digit. The figure is available in three places: on paper in the salary statement, digitally in the ELSTER account and in your employer’s HR department. So what is my tax class in concrete terms? A glance at the top of your latest payslip is enough.
Where can I find my tax class?
Where can I find my tax class when no payslip is at hand? Finding your tax class is easier than most people think. You do not have to call anyone to learn it: four sources lead to the answer. Anyone wanting to find out their wage tax class uses the same four.
Career starters and students in a side job are a special case. Anyone who wants to find out their tax class as a student has no old payslip yet. The rule here: without a further job you land in class 1 automatically, and a second job adds class 6.
Checking your tax class online
You can check your tax class online through ELSTER, the tax administration’s free portal. The data is stored there as electronic wage tax deduction features, ELStAM for short. They hold your class, the number of child allowances, the church tax marker and any individual allowances.
The route: create an account on elster.de, log in with a certificate file, then look under “Meine ELStAM”. Because the activation code arrives by post, the first registration takes around two weeks. After that you can view your tax class in ELSTER at any time. You also see the stored tax features and can check which employer retrieved them.
Changes do not show up immediately. After an application at the tax office it usually takes a few days to a few weeks before the new features are available.
Which tax class applies to my situation?
Which tax class suits you comes down to two questions: what is your marital status, and how is income spread across the household? The three cases below cover the large majority of employees.
Tax class for single people
Which tax class applies if you are single? In almost every case class 1. The standard wage tax class for people living alone covers the unmarried, the divorced and spouses living permanently apart. Widowed people move there from the second year after the death as well. Class 1 brings the full basic allowance, the employee lump sum and the pension lump sum. For single people without a child the wage tax class is therefore always 1.
There is one exception: anyone living alone with a child belongs in class 2 and saves noticeably. And anyone earning extra in a second employed role gets class 6 for that contract. Neither happens by itself, both need an application or a new employment contract.
Tax class for married couples
After the wedding the tax office puts both partners into class 4 automatically. That is rarely wrong, but often not optimal. Married couples have three options: 4/4, 3/5 or 4/4 with a factor. Which one fits is decided by the salary gap between the partners.
For spouses on roughly equal pay, 4/4 stays the simplest solution. If one partner earns considerably more, around 60% of the joint income or above, 3/5 brings more net into the household each month. The factor method under § 39f EStG is the middle way: each pays in proportion to their share of the income. You do not have to work the factor out yourself, the tax office calculates it from both spouses’ salaries. It is valid for up to two calendar years and has to be applied for again afterwards.
Tax class for parents
A child does not change your tax class automatically if you are married. What changes are the child allowances in the ELStAM. In 2026 they stand at €4,878 per parent, so €9,756 per child. For the monthly wage tax deduction they only matter for the solidarity surcharge and church tax. Child benefit of €259 a month runs separately from this.
Single parents, by contrast, benefit directly. Class 2 brings the relief amount of €4,260 a year, plus €240 for each further child. The condition is a household without a second adult. If a new partner moves in, the entitlement ends and you report it to the tax office. Anyone expecting a child should also think about parental allowance: it is based on net pay in the twelve months before the birth.
Which tax class is best?
Which tax class is best? The question has no universal answer, and that follows from the mechanism above. Calculated over the year, all couples on the same total income pay the same income tax in the end. The class only shifts when the money moves. The effects show up in monthly net pay, not in the annual tax bill. “Best” therefore means best for your situation.
| Combination | Fits with | Monthly net pay | Tax return | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 / 4 | similar salaries | evenly spread | voluntary | hardly any risk of a back payment |
| 3 / 5 | a large salary gap | higher in the household, very unevenly spread | mandatory | back payment possible, the partner in class 5 pays a lot |
| 4 / 4 with factor | a moderate gap | proportionally fair | mandatory | the factor expires after two years |
Wage replacement benefits follow their own logic. Anyone expecting parental allowance does better with the more favourable class. Plan the change early: the twelve months before maternity leave are what count. A tax class calculator run by the tax administration helps you compare the options. It gives a first orientation, but for larger amounts it does not replace tax advice.
Interim conclusion: the best tax class is the one that matches your income split. 4/4 keeps the risk small. 3/5 brings more net into the house in the short term, and the factor spreads the load honestly across both partners. In all three cases the annual tax is identical.
When does the tax class change?
Which tax class applies when depends on events in your private life. Some the tax office processes by itself, others you have to report. This overview shows what happens when.
One persistent rumour concerns the end of classes 3 and 5. The plan appeared in the 2024 draft of the Steuerfortentwicklungsgesetz and foresaw a switch to the factor method from 2030. It was struck from the version that was actually passed. As of August 2026 there is neither a law nor a date, and the current federal government is not pursuing it. Both classes therefore remain available.
Changing your tax class – how it works
Since 2020 you may change your tax class several times a year. Only one restriction remains: a combination you have swapped can be reversed once per calendar year. You file the application together with your partner, digitally through ELSTER or with the paper form “Antrag auf Steuerklassenwechsel bei Ehegatten”. This is how the process runs when you want to set a new tax class.
Changing your tax class in five steps
Put both partners’ gross salaries side by side. If the gap is clear, 3/5 or the factor is worth a look.
Use a tax class calculator or tax software and compare the household net pay of all three combinations. Keep planned wage replacement benefits such as parental allowance in mind.
Log in to ELSTER and select the application for a tax class change. You need both partners’ tax identification numbers and the combination you want. The paper route works just as well.
Both partners sign, then the application goes to your local tax office. For the current year it has to arrive by 30 November, later applications only take effect the following year.
The tax office updates the ELStAM and your employer retrieves them automatically. Check your next payslip. If the new class is printed there, the change has gone through.
Tax class and the payslip
The payslip is the document where the tax class becomes visible. Whether yours is headed Lohnabrechnung or Gehaltsabrechnung makes no difference: the tax class sits in the same place on both. Personal features are at the top, earnings in the middle, deductions at the bottom. Wage tax is the largest item next to social security contributions, and it is exactly what your class steers.
An example makes the tax burden tangible. Take €4,000 gross a month. An employer withholds considerably less wage tax in class 3 than in class 5, even though the salary is identical. The difference comes purely from the stored allowances and adds up to several hundred euros depending on the class.
Where is the tax class shown on the payslip?
Where exactly is the tax class shown on the payslip? In the header, on the same line as the tax identification number and the church tax marker. The abbreviation reads “StKl”, “LSt-Kl” or simply “SK”, followed by the number of your tax class, a digit between 1 and 6. Some payslips use Roman numerals, so a 4 becomes IV.
Next to it sit two entries that often get mixed up. The number of child allowances appears as a decimal, such as 0.5 or 1.0. The church tax marker is a code like “ev” or “rk”. If one of them is wrong, contact your HR department. The correction runs through the ELStAM at the tax office.
Tax class and self-employment
Where do I find my tax class as a self-employed person? That search leads nowhere, and for a simple reason. Which tax class applies in self-employment can be answered in one word: none. There is simply no tax class for the self-employed. Tax classes belong to the wage tax deduction, and that only exists within employment. Anyone working as a freelancer or trader instead pays quarterly advance payments on income tax, which the tax office sets based on the expected profit.
The topic still becomes relevant in two constellations. First, a side business alongside a job: you keep your class for the job, and the profit from self-employment is added in the tax return. Second, within a marriage. If one partner is employed and the other self-employed, the expected profit affects which class makes sense for the employed partner. Anyone choosing 3/5 here should plan for reserves.
That is exactly where many stumble in their first year. The advance payment arrives quarterly, turnover fluctuates monthly, and the money is quickly spent in the business.
Why a business account makes sense for the self-employed
A dedicated business account for the self-employed separates private and business bookings from day one. That saves hours at the year-end close, because you no longer have to fish business expenses out of a private statement.
For the tax reserve, sub-accounts with their own IBAN are practical. After every invoice you move the estimated tax share to a separate account, so you see at any time what really belongs to you. For bookkeeping you connect the account to DATEV, sevDesk or Lexware Office, after which transactions and statements synchronise automatically.
Common mistakes around the tax class
The same misconceptions come up again and again when people work out their tax class. Most cost no money, but they do cause an unexpected back payment. These six are worth knowing.
One last point concerns timing: many only think about it in December, when a change no longer takes effect for the current year. Checking your tax class pays off whenever something changes. And as soon as your own income arrives alongside a salary, it is worth looking at the options for your business.
A business account for your self-employment
Separate private and business finances from day one. With the Vivid Business account you park tax reserves on sub-accounts with their own IBAN, capture receipts in the app and connect your account directly to DATEV, sevDesk or Lexware Office.
FAQ: frequently asked questions
When should you pick 3 and 5, and when 4 and 4?
The salary gap decides. If both partners earn roughly the same, 4/4 is the simplest choice: the deduction is spread evenly and a back payment is unlikely. If one partner brings in around 60% of the joint income or more, 3/5 leaves more in the household each month. 4/4 with a factor is the middle way and splits the load proportionally. Important: with 3/5 and with the factor, the tax return becomes mandatory.
When do you end up in tax class 6?
As soon as you take a second job subject to social security contributions. The main job keeps its existing class, and every further contract runs in class 6. There are no allowances there, which is why the deduction looks steep. A mini-job below the earnings threshold is not affected as long as it is taxed at a flat rate. Wage tax you overpaid comes back through the tax return.
Which tax class do you have if you are single?
Who is in tax class 1? As a rule single people without a child in the household. The divorced count too, along with spouses living permanently apart and widowed people from the second year after the death. The class contains the full basic allowance of €12,348, the employee lump sum and the pension lump sum. If you live alone with a child, you can apply for class 2 instead and receive the relief amount.
Which tax class leaves the most net pay?
Month by month, class 3, because the double basic allowance flows in there. But there is no generally best class: class 3 requires a partner in class 5, whose net pay drops accordingly. Calculated over the year, a household on the same total income always pays the same income tax. The tax class only shifts when the money moves, and the tax return puts it right.
What is the worst wage tax class?
Measured by the monthly deduction it is class 6, because it has no allowances. For its purpose it is still the right fit. It only applies to a second or third job, where the allowances are already used up in the main one. Class 5 also feels unfavourable, but it only makes sense together with class 3 on the partner’s side. At the end of the year only the tax return counts.
Note: the contents of this blog serve general information purposes only and do not constitute legal, financial, investment or tax advice. They are not a recommendation or a basis for financial decisions. All information refers to the status as of August 2026 and may change. Before acting on this information, please seek advice from qualified professionals who can take your personal situation into account.
