We’re back at it again and answering your top questions! Recently, a customer asked us about the differences between the KV, AV, RV, UV, and PV payments for insurance. This article explains what these payments are and how they’re calculated.
What is the KV Beitrag?
The term KV Beitrag is a shortened term for Krankenversicherung Beitrag, or health insurance contribution in English. This is how much you’ll need to pay when signing up for health insurance and is made up of several insurance payments.
Each year, the government decides how much each full-time employee will pay in the form of a percentage, which makes up the insurance payment. Currently (2022), that percentage is 14.6% of your income. Your employer is responsible for half of this payment, so you should only see about 7.3% taken from your monthly income for your health insurance.
In addition to this, there is also the Zusatzbeitrag or additional payment that helps cover costs for health insurance providers. The amount is determined by each health insurance company and regulated through the German government. If you’re interested to see the difference, you can go to our public health insurance page and enter in different incomes to see the differences in overall contributions per provider.
The contribution maxes out at €5175 per month or €62,100 per year. Many young, single, and healthy people without children think this is too expensive, so they can actually switch to private health insurance after earning €69,300 per year while getting more extensive care and saving money.
What is the AV Beitrag?
AV Beitrag is a shortened term for Arbeitslosenversicherung Beitrag, or unemployment insurance contribution in English. This type of insurance is done automatically when employed full-time at a company or from your taxes if you are self-employed.
This type of insurance is required and is handled through government regulation. The system provides a safety net in case of unemployment which people can use when looking for another job. During the pandemic, this also includes Kurzarbeit, or temporary unemployment from the impact of lockdowns.
For gastronomy workers who are unable to work during restaurant closures or hospitality workers when travel and accommodation facilities closed, they were able to receive a certain percentage of their normal paycheck through the government until things began opening up again.
Looking at countries without unemployment insurance systems in place, it’s clear that restaurants, hotels, and other businesses that depend on non-lockdown situations had to close permanently. In contrast to Germany, they could wait to reopen once lockdown measures ceased.
The contribution for 2023 is 2.4% with a maximum amount differing from East and West German federal states (Bundesländer). In the West, this is €7,300 per month or €87,600 per year whereas in the East this is €7,100 per month or €85,200 per year (current information can be found here).
What is the RV Beitrag?
RV Beitrag is another shortened term for Rentenversicherung Beitrag, or pension insurance contribution. To be eligible for a German pension, you need to contribute to German pension insurance for a minimum of 5 years.
If you know that you will be leaving Germany before the 5 years are up, you can actually get your contributions back, which can sometimes be in the tens of thousands depending on the length of your time working and the amount you earned. We partnered with Refund German Pension Insurance to write a guide to getting your pension contributions back.
Pension insurance contributions are set for 2024 at 18.6%, which might seem like a lot, but you’re only responsible for half since your employer pays the other half. The pension insurance contribution is similar to unemployment contributions as the maximum amount differs from Eastern and Western federal states set at €7,550 per month or €90,600 per year and Eastern federal states set at €7,450 per month or €89,400 per year (current information can be found here).
What is the UV Beitrag?
Yet again, UV Beitrag is a shortened version of Unfallversicherungsbeitrag, or in English, accident insurance contribution. This branch of (partially) mandatory social security insurance in Germany protects people against accidents. Most people are mandated to have accident insurance, but the full list can be found on the government’s website.
The amount each person will need to pay is different and is calculated based on the following formula:
Accident insurance contribution = compensation x contribution rate x risk class
You can find the following information and where you fall on the website of the compulsory accident insurance institution.
What is the PV Beitrag?
The last contribution we’ll speak about in this article is the PV Beitrag (Pflegeversicherungsbeitrag), or nursing care insurance. This type of insurance is mandatory for everyone in Germany including those who are privately insured. The goal is to protect people in situations where they require long-term nursing care.
In 1995 Germany added this insurance to their branch of social services due to an aging population. As people get older, they have a significantly higher chance of needing additional care at either a retirement facility or at-home nursing care. To prevent people from struggling alone, nursing care insurance was added.
The contribution is 3.05% and is included in your health insurance. The payment is paired with the health insurance, so the contribution limits are the same in both East and West German federal states for public health insurance payments at €5,175 per month and €62,100 per year (current information can be found here).
If you’re confused about what your contribution will be, you can use this salary calculator which estimates each mandatory insurance contribution.
Thinking about getting life insurance or flexible pension insurance? Feather’s policies can be taken with you no matter where your journey takes you. From Shanghai to Mexico City, as long as you sign up in Germany, the plan grows with you!
