Are you happy with your salary and your taxes?

24 comments

1. I like paying a lot of tax. Means I earn well.

2. I am totally happy with what i ‘take home’ (do you just mean netto wages with that?), especially considering the kind of services that are implied with the money i do not ‘take home’. If i wanted to have a huge wage increase, i would have to find a Job in the USA, which comes with other problems which are more apparent than ever in these times.

   EDIT: The knowledge that my money is getting used to help people who cannot (or even don’t want to) work in a capitalist society, fills me with pride.

3. Yes, I’m saving money every month. While it was a salary cut moving here from the US, the quality of life is higher.

4. My salary has only dropped about 2€ so thats nice.
   I always feel that the taxpayer’s money doesn’t get used as efficiently as possible.

5. Don’t be fooled by the propaganda. High taxes are not a big problem. It’s when big companies and rich people avoid paying taxes, that’s the big social issue.

   No, I really don’t mind.

6. I pay the maximum tax rate and and in the GKV. I couldn’t pay more in taxes and insurance. And I’m happy with it. I got support from the society during the time I needed it, so it’s fair to give it back now. Germany is a social state and I would not want to change it. I’m not at all interested to move to a more capitalists country like the USA, even if I can get there like 2-3 times more money.

7. If taxes would be used for schools and fighting children poverty and hunger i wouldn’t mind at all. But it’s used most of the time to save billionaires and their useless companies and we allow richtung people to evade taxes so easily that it hurts

8. Yes I am happy with my salary. No I wouldn’t consider moving. Compared to my life in the UK I have better accomodation, a more secure job, a much better pension scheme, better healthcare, exceptionally better local public transport and I can afford my lifestyle with no worries (including adopting two cats). I have the same career (Researcher) as I did there.

9. I earn a lot. I am happy with the actual outcomes I get from paying tax. But I do question if it could be lower or adjusted

   Specifically, with my high salary and low rent, I’m still not able to buy a proper apartment for my family. Kind of odd because I feel like Germany wants/expects me to rent for my whole life here.

   TS like that saying “if you quit smoking, you could have had a Porsche by now!” And the guy replies you don’t smoke, where’s your Porsche?

   I feel similar in that groceries, rent, public transport is all better/cheaper etc here but I still can’t buy a place lol, like I don’t want to buy a fancy car, am I expected to just saving everything in stocks to use when I’m 70 and can’t do half the shit i want? It’s an odd feeling.

10. Obviously, I’d like to take more money home, but I wouldn’t really know which part of the tax to take away. I would need to know more details about how much of every country’s tax goes into which part of infrastructure and public services. What does Sweden take out to have such a relatively high take home?

    Frankly I wouldn’t mind paying the current tax rate if I felt like I was getting more from it – especially healthcare.

    But yes, I think our salaries are long due to grow and match the COL rising.

11. I’m happy enough with my income and I have absolute no issue paying taxes with it. I think being anti taxes is just narcissism.

    The one thing I’m less happy about is that despite paying so much on health insurance, so many things still aren’t covered by it. I’m a contractor and pay just over €1k per month on health insurance, but it feels like every doctor I go to still needs to charge for something. I’m not saying we should be paying less, but the cover should be much better.

12. Take home is alright. The taxes are rough.

13. ” it seems that in Germany, the take-home pay after deductions is lower than in many developing countries.”

    You mean developing countries like:
    Switzerland, Luxemburg, Iceland, Norway, The Netherlands, Ireland (ok I’ll give you that one), Austria and Denmark? There are literally 2 graphics in the article displaying this.

    If you want to make a point make it correctly instead of mixing up percentages and absolute numbers. Additionally when it comes to this there are a shitton of details/nuances that can get overlooked. As a Dutch person I can compare between Germany and the Netherlands. Here just some stuff that is a (partial) separate payment here (or taxed higher) but (partially) included/financed by other taxes in Germany (which often ends up income tax).

    – health insurance (150€/month + higher deductible)
    – municipal taxes for residents (including some waste stuff)
    – higher taxes on consumption goods (from VAT to Petrol)
    – road tax is no joke in the Netherlands compared to Germany, especially on heavier (diesel) vehicles

    Besides that, where do you look at; Grosspay on your payslip and the net or the total employment costs your employer makes and your net pay?

14. The important question is not “what percentage of your income do you take home”, who cares?

    The important question is “how much money do you have left after taxes *and housing costs*?”

15. I’m ok with my salary but I’m not happy with how stingy my company is with giving raises. I got a 1% raise last year, which is mostly offset by inflation anyway so is it really much of a raise? My life is comfortable enough though, so I can’t REALLY complain. The rising costs are definitely very noticable but I also don’t have a better idea on how everyone should or shouldn’t be taxed.

16. i am happy with what i get. but i would be much more haply to know that taxes would be fair and the rich would not evade everything they could earning money without doing jack.
    and i would love the taxes to be used more efficiently and for education and childcare.

    and to be honest. germans want to pay more for a less efficient country. i cant find any other explanation why anyone would vote for cdu, afd, fdp otherwise.

17. Just looked at my last tax receipts and saw 1600€ for pensions in just November and December. Something I won’t get, the system will have collapsed by then

    So I pay almost 10k per year for _zero_ benefit. I could put that money into ETFs and live very comfortably in 40 years

    I don’t mind paying the government for stuff, I don’t mind that I pay more because I earn above the median income. I mind that the money gets wasted and problems that have been around for decades don’t get addressed while my money is getting burned

18. I’d like to have my capitals gains taxed more, but overall I am happy. The issue should not be the amount taxed, but the usage.

19. I was very unhappy with the amount of taxes I was paying in Germany. I considered it not proportional to the actual income I was receiving and it seems I was getting less and less for the money I was paying.

    Unemployment insurance capped at an amount that would only cover my rent.

    Health insurance costs rising while quality of the service is becoming worse.

    Pension insurance payments increasing while expecting fewer returns and older minimum age for retirement.

    Lack of incentives to invest, other than the usual crappy riester and rurup.

    Paternity payments capped at an almost meaningless amount if I were to stop working during that time in addition to being at risk from not qualifying to receive it, if my income was added to my partner’s income.

    Although my take home was okay for my lifestyle, I was very unhappy with how much I was losing to taxes.

    The problem for me is that the high tax rate of 42% kicks in too soon. It should not start before income would be a minimum of 100k.

20. The tax burden (plus social security contributions) is attrocious.

    Top tax rate at 1.5x the average income is ridiculous (we had high tax rate 50 years ago but they were for the very rich i.e. like 20x the average income.)

    Many people get to take home only like 50% of the whole salary (this means you work 6 months of the year for free basically).

    [https://www.reddit.com/r/Finanzen/comments/1hnkv4a/abgabenlaststatistik_2025_vorl%C3%A4ufig/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Finanzen/comments/1hnkv4a/abgabenlaststatistik_2025_vorl%C3%A4ufig/)

    Also highest tax burden off all OECD countries (besided Belgium).
    [https://www.reddit.com/r/Finanzen/comments/1i1cc59/deutschland_hat_keine_niedrigen_l%C3%B6hne_nur_die/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Finanzen/comments/1i1cc59/deutschland_hat_keine_niedrigen_l%C3%B6hne_nur_die/)

    The whole system is based on only taking more and more from the people earning well. IMO that kills innovation and advancement in many areas completely, as people have no motivation to try harder. Why should they, even if they get a raise the government will take like half of it.

    And let me be clear. I am not at all against taxing the rich. The issue is that in Germany at the moment the defintion of rich has come down to mean middle class.

21. No, I am not.

    Heating and utilities increased significantly, I had to pay extra 1000 euros AND got +80 euros per month.

    “Free” healthcare that combined contribution mine and my employer something like 800 euros per month. And it’s impossible to get a dermatologist Termin and some other doctors, couple that with the fact that 80% of the visits ends with sending you home to drink tea, I don’t think it’s worth the money. And no, urgent care is not that better. If you are not dying you will be laying in pain for hours in queue.

    Inflation still going, almost everything had increased prices starting new year, from groceries to doners, services etc.

    I live in Berlin, it’s dirty as fuck. I leave a couple of complaints per month through Ordnungsamt application only for them to mark as completed, while the thrash is still there. Well, they did start to clean our street more often,so here’s that.

    U-Bahn is old, trains are old, there is almost no new lines being built, and ones that get built or renovated are extremely slow. Buses became more sparse,but at least they are on time now. Sometimes.

    Btw, today BVG has their strike, and I had to “enjoy” bike infrastructure. It’s almost everywhere is an afterthought, sometimes full of potholes. It’s not that the car infrastructure is much better. Or any infrastructure(see Dresden bridge).

    I can continue for ages, but the point is, I don’t think my high taxes is well spent, so of course when I see that this year I will have >40 euros less, with some other taxes being increased, and with genius suggestions that money I save should be also used for social contributions, I am not happy.

    My salary is fine I guess, but I have to work my ass off to stay ahead of competition in a rat race. So I don’t know who in clear conscience can say they are happy with how they taxes are being spent. Idk if these people are bots, or just conditioned to be pay pigs. There are plenty of countries who have less tax burden with better infrastructure.

22. What are your thoughts on this topic, are you happy with your salary?

    No

    Would you consider moving to another country for better take-home pay?

    Yes

23. Of course not.

24. No. It is crazy how much our salaries just decreased with the new cost increase from healthcare and nursing care insurance.
    70€ less per month and still the whole inflation topic and we all know these costs will increase now yearly with no end in sight.
    Not much hope atm.

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