🇬🇧 United Kingdom vs Germany 🇩🇪 — Take-Home Pay
A side-by-side look at how much of your salary you actually keep in each country.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
= £35,000 per year
Estimated monthly take-home
£2,393
£28,720 per year · 17.9% goes to tax & contributions
| Item | Per year | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | £35,000 | £2,917 |
| Income Tax | −£4,486 | −£374 |
| National InsuranceClass 1 employee | −£1,794 | −£150 |
| Take-home pay | £28,720 | £2,393 |
Estimate only — not tax advice. Figures are estimates based on publicly available tax rules and may not reflect your full circumstances. See our methodology & sources. Always confirm with an official tax authority or a licensed adviser before making decisions.
🇩🇪 Germany
= 45.000 € per year
Estimated monthly take-home
2.504 €
30.047 € per year · 33.2% goes to tax & contributions
| Item | Per year | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | 45.000 € | 3.750 € |
| Income tax (Lohnsteuer) | −5.436 € | −453 € |
| Solidarity surcharge (Soli)below Freigrenze | −0 € | −0 € |
| Pension insurance9.3% | −4.185 € | −349 € |
| Health insurance8.75% (incl. avg. Zusatzbeitrag) | −3.937 € | −328 € |
| Long-term care insurance1.8% | −810 € | −67 € |
| Unemployment insurance1.3% | −585 € | −49 € |
| Take-home pay | 30.047 € | 2.504 € |
Estimate only — not tax advice. Figures are estimates based on publicly available tax rules and may not reflect your full circumstances. See our methodology & sources. Always confirm with an official tax authority or a licensed adviser before making decisions.
Effective tax at a glance
| Income level | United Kingdom | Germany |
|---|---|---|
| Low | £21,000 → 11% tax | 26.400 € → 27% tax |
| Median | £35,000 → 18% tax | 44.000 € → 33% tax |
| High | £70,000 → 27% tax | 88.000 € → 40% tax |
Why UK and Germany differ
United Kingdom keeps the advantage at every income level shown. At the median you keep 82.1% of gross the UK against 67.0% Germany — 15.0 points — widening to 9.6 points at three times the median.
The two systems get there differently. United Kingdom takes 12.8% of a median salary as income tax and 5.1% as social contributions; Germany splits its own median 11.8% to 21.1%. Comparing headline income-tax rates between UK and Germany would therefore mislead you by roughly 16.0 points in whichever direction the contributions fall.
Neither United Kingdom nor Germany routes a mandatory savings component through payroll, so everything deducted in the table below is genuinely gone rather than being saved on your behalf — the comparison needs no adjustment before you read it.
Matched income levels, UK against Germany
Converting GBP into EUR would compare two different standards of living. Each row instead takes the same multiple of the United Kingdom median and the Germany median, then asks what share of each survives locally.
| Income level | United Kingdom | Germany | Keeps more |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry level (0.6× median) | £21,000 → 11.2% | 26.400 € → 26.7% | UK |
| Median (1× median) | £35,000 → 17.9% | 44.000 € → 33.0% | UK |
| Well paid (1.5× median) | £52,500 → 21.9% | 66.000 € → 37.5% | UK |
| Senior (2× median) | £70,000 → 26.9% | 88.000 € → 39.7% | UK |
| High earner (3× median) | £105,000 → 32.9% | 132.000 € → 42.5% | UK |
What rent does to the comparison
Tax is the smaller of the two variables. On each country’s own median salary, these are the cities we hold rent data for and what a one-bedroom city-centre flat leaves behind — a spread that routinely dwarfs the 15.0-point tax gap between UK and Germany.
| City | 1-bed city-centre rent | Share of take-home | Left after rent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Birmingham (UK) | £1,050 | 44% | £1,343 |
| Manchester (UK) | £1,150 | 48% | £1,243 |
| Edinburgh (UK) | £1,300 | 54% | £1,093 |
| London (UK) | £2,200 | 92% | £193 |
| Berlin (Germany) | 1.300 € | 53% | 1.158 € |
| Hamburg (Germany) | 1.400 € | 57% | 1.058 € |
| Frankfurt (Germany) | 1.450 € | 59% | 1.008 € |
| Munich (Germany) | 1.700 € | 69% | 758 € |
Frequently Asked Questions
+Is take-home pay higher in United Kingdom or Germany?
At the median, United Kingdom: you keep 82.1% of gross the UK against 67.0% Germany. At three times the median the answer is United Kingdom, at 67.1% versus 57.5% — so the honest answer depends on what you earn.
+Why do United Kingdom and Germany tax differently?
United Kingdom relies on Income Tax and National Insurance and Germany on Einkommensteuer, Soli and Sozialversicherung. In practice UK takes 12.8% of a median salary as income tax and 5.1% as contributions, while Germany splits its own median 11.8% to 21.1%.
+Should I move from United Kingdom to Germany for the money?
Tax alone is a real but partial reason: the gap at the median is 15.0 percentage points of gross. Rent typically moves further than that between two cities inside United Kingdom alone, so compare the UK and Germany housing figures below, and the salary you would actually be offered, before treating the tax gap as decisive.
+Which is better for a high earner, UK or Germany?
At three times the median — £105,000 the UK, 132.000 € Germany — United Kingdom leaves more, keeping 67.1% against 57.5%. High earners are also where contribution ceilings bite, and United Kingdom and Germany set theirs at different points.
Estimate only — not tax advice. Figures are estimates based on publicly available tax rules and may not reflect your full circumstances. See our methodology & sources (last reviewed June 2026). Always confirm with an official tax authority or a licensed adviser before making decisions.