Severance Calculator

Severance sounds like a round sum at first, but between gross and what lands in your account sits the tax office. Because severance is an extraordinary one-off payment, it is treated differently for tax than your regular wage - and that is exactly where it is decided whether you end up with more or less. The Severance Calculator makes this calculation transparent before you sign a settlement agreement.

First the calculator estimates the amount of the severance itself. The rule of thumb is the common standard severance of half a gross monthly salary per year of employment, as referenced among others by section 1a KSchG for orientation. You enter your monthly gross and your length of service, and the calculator gives you the benchmark. Important to know: there is no general statutory entitlement to severance in Germany - the actual amount is negotiated or arises from specific constellations. The figure here is a guide, not a promise.

The real core is the tax comparison. The calculator contrasts two scenarios: normal taxation, where the severance is added in full to your other annual income, and the fifth-rule method under section 34 EStG. This computes the tax as if the severance were spread over five years, which softens the progressive tax tariff. Both routes are fully calculated - income tax, solidarity surcharge and, if you enter it, church tax.

So the numbers fit your situation, the calculator takes your tax class into account. Classes 3 and 5 are treated as joint assessment with the splitting tariff, the others with the basic tariff. The calculation uses the current 2026 tariff values, including the basic allowance, the progression zones and the exemption limits for the solidarity surcharge. So you get not a rough back-of-envelope figure but a traceable estimate close to the actual tax logic.

The result shows you for both scenarios the tax burden and the net amount left of the severance, plus the concrete saving from the fifth-rule method in euros and percent. A bar chart makes the difference visible at a glance. Fourteen ready scenarios - from long service to short - let you quickly play through how salary, years and tax class play out.

An honest word on the nature of the tool: the Severance Calculator is an estimation and comparison tool, not tax or legal advice. It helps you understand the ballpark and go well prepared into a conversation with your employer, works council, tax advisor or lawyer - but it does not replace them. The actual tax treatment depends on your overall case.

Everything runs in your browser. Your salary and tax data are not sent to a server and not stored. No account, no signup, no sharing - exactly right for such personal figures.