Self-employed workers

When you are self-employed, you have one thing above all: little time. That's why we have your personal SBK consultant on hand to take care of many things for you and advise you.

Assessment basis for contributions

Contributions for self-employed workers are linked to income. This means that your contributions are adjusted in line with your individual income. Your contribution is calculated on the basis of the SBK contribution rate and the amount of your total income. If you have interest income, rental income or other income in addition to your gross profit, for example, these are also included in your total income.

If your income falls below the legally prescribed minimum limit for calculating contributions (€1,178.33 monthly), your contributions will be calculated from this limit at a minimum. If your income exceeds the contribution assessment ceiling (€5,175 monthly), you will pay contributions calculated from this maximum limit. 

This means that in 2024 you will pay contributions from an income of:

Contributions to health insurance 

Currently, the reduced contribution rate is 15.7% (incl. SBK supplementary contribution) and the general contribution rate is 16.3% (incl. SBK supplementary contribution). Whether you pay the reduced or the general contribution rate depends on the type of income you have. So if you have different types of income, you may pay the reduced contribution rate on one part of your monthly income and the general contribution rate on another part. You can find out which income is used to calculate contributions here.

Contributions to nursing care insurance 

The basic contribution rate for nursing care insurance is 3.4%. This applies to insured persons with one child or insured persons under the age of 23.

Insured persons with two or more children receive relief depending on the number of children. For each child under the age of 25, the basic contribution rate is reduced by 0.25 percentage points. You can find a list of contribution rates according to the number of children here.

For insured persons over the age of 23 and without children, the contribution rate is 4.0%.

Sample calculation: 
Your monthly income is €3,000. 
The contribution rate for health insurance is currently 15.7%, or 16.3% with entitlement to sickness benefits.
The contribution rate for nursing care insurance is currently 3.4% or 4.0% for individuals over the age of 23 with no children. 
Health insurance contribution: €3,000 × 15.7% = €471
Nursing care insurance contribution: €3,000 × 3.4% = €102 

Income subject to contributions includes all income used for maintenance, such as: 

Once a year we will ask you about your income situation in order to calculate the contributions to be paid. 

If your spouse or partner is privately insured, their income is also used to calculate the contributions.

A copy of your most recent income tax assessment serves as proof of your income. Since your last income tax assessment is used to calculate your contributions, your contributions are always calculated first and then adjusted later in line with your actual income. For this reason, it is best for you to send us your current assessment as soon as you receive it, so you can avoid having to pay more later and can benefit from any contribution savings. 

If you do not yet have a tax assessment for income from self-employed work, you can estimate your income in order to calculate a temporary contribution. When the tax assessment is submitted, your contributions will be recalculated and you may receive some money back or you may need to pay more. For this reason we recommend being as realistic as possible when estimating your income. 

You can simply set up a direct debit for your contributions. To do so, send us a direct debit authorisation via your personal online self-service branch, Meine SBK. We will then debit your contributions from your account on time, every time. Alternatively you can give us a SEPA direct debit mandate. Please contact your personal consultant to do so.

Or you can transfer your contributions yourself. Please note that your contributions must be credited to our account by the 15th of the following month at the latest. For example, contributions for January must reach our account by 15 February at the latest. 

Please transfer your contributions to the following bank account: 

SBK, UniCredit Bank GmbH, IBAN: DE58 7902 0076 0027 9131 99, BIC: HYVEDEMM455

Here as well, we are your reliable partner. We will be happy to advise you individually on your insurance and contributions. Your personal consultant will accompany and advise you comprehensively and competently on all questions relating to insurance and contributions for the self-employed. You will also receive valuable tips and information on topics that are important for you as a business founder, for example on the start-up subsidy.

When you start a business, you have the opportunity to apply for a subsidy from the Federal Employment Agency (Agentur für Arbeit). This start-up grant supports you on your way to self-employment. You will initially receive a start-up grant for six months. How much subsidy you receive depends on the amount of unemployment benefit you are entitled to. The following applies: The start-up grant per month corresponds to the amount of the last unemployment benefit you received plus €300, whereby this additional amount is completely non-contributory. For you, this means that your contributions are only calculated on the basis of the last unemployment benefit you received. For more information on the subsidy itself, please contact the Federal Employment Agency.