For Employees
Being employed in Germany means a number of bureaucratic steps and letters and forms from a range of institutions. Even before you arrive, you will need to fill out a number of forms and will be asked to provide a number of details. To find out more, please see the information below.
Tax ID
Usually you will receive your tax ID, which is valid for
life, after you have registered your address at the
Bürgerbüro [lit. citizens' office]. As it will
arrive via post a couple of weeks after registering, please
make sure that your name is on your letter box. Once you
have your tax ID, please let your HR contact person know.
Sometimes, you will receive a lower first salary than
expected. This is usually the case when the LBV [Landesamt
für Besoldung und Versorgung] does not have all the
relevant information yet and puts you into Steuerklasse
VI [tax bracket], which has a lot of deductions.
However, once this has been rectified, you should receive
the money that is owed.
Should you be working from abroad at first, you
will need to apply
for a tax ID. Please get in touch with us for further
information.
LBV – Landesamt für
Besoldung und Versorgung
The LBV, or Landesamt für Besoldung und
Versorgung NRW [State Office for Remuneration and
Supply North Rhine-Westphalia], is responsible for
calculating and paying the salaries of all employees of the
state, or Land North Rhine-Westphalia. The
University of Siegen is amongst the public universities in
Germany, which make up for approximately 90 % of the
university landscape. Public universities being
state-funded, employees will be paid by the respective
State Office for Remuneration and Supply. For the
University of Siegen, this is the LBV NRW. For this reason
you will need to fill out a number of forms for the LBV
when being employed by the University, and receive your
payslips (see below) from the LBV, too.
Social Security
There is a social security system in place in
Germany, which encompasses health insurance, pension
schemes, unemployment benefit, accident and long-term care
insurance. Contributions to these five social insurances
are deducted monthly from your wages. The height of the
contribution depends on your gross wages. The University as
your employer also pays an additional amount into the
respective schemes.
Having registered your address, you will receive a
so-called Sozialversicherungsausweis [social
security ID] by post from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung.
This number is valid your entire life, so please keep this
document. Even though the word "Ausweis" might
lead you to expect a card or similar, the piece of paper is
all you need. Should you lose your document, please contact
the Rentenversicherung to apply for a replacement.
This number is particularly important with regard to
pension entitlements at a later point in life. Please be
aware that while the health insurance is a part of the
social security system, you will be given a separate number
and also a health insurance card from your insurance
provider.
Pension insurance [Rentenversicherung]
The Rentenversicherung, or pension insurance, is part of the social security system in Germany. All employees who are subject to social security contributions automatically pay into the pension insurance. It is not possible to free yourself from paying these contributions. For information regarding the additional pension scheme from the VBL, please see below.
You can find information on pension entitlements from other EU countries here. For individual questions, you can get in touch with anfragen-international@vbl.de.
UK nationals can find additional information on pension entitlemens in the UK here.
VBL – Versorgungsanstalt
des Bundes und der Länder
The VBL, or Versorgungsanstalt des
Bundes und der Länder is an insurance company that
provides occupational pensions for the public sector, to
which the University belongs. Usually, you will be
automatically registered for the VBL klassik pension scheme.
Contributions for employees are at 1.81 % of the taxable
income, while the employer pays an additional 6.45 %. As
eligbility is reached only after 5 years (or 60 months) of
employment in total, the VBL also allows researchers with
short-term contracts to opt for the VBL extrascheme within the first
two months of
employment. For a good overview and additional differences
between the schemes, please watch thevideo for "Scientific employees" or visit the VBL
website.
As the VBL has very recently changed its website, there is very little content in English available at present. Please find further information in the following PDFs:
» Information on the company
» Information sheet for newly insured persons
» VBL extra
» Information sheet for researchers and scientists. You can also get further, more personalised information through the VBL webcasts.
Payslip
Receiving your first payslip can be very confusing and you
might not know where to begin to find out what information
is given. Luckily, we can offer you a cheat sheet to
understand your payslip.