Embedded payroll infrastructure — Germany

Launch payroll in Germany without becoming a German payroll bureau.

Your platform is entering Europe's largest payroll market — a country with three statutory data channels, ninety-plus health insurance funds, and criminal liability for getting contributions wrong. Ledra Pay gives you the certified Entgeltabrechnung pack behind the same API you already integrated.

Book the demo Or see it calculate Brutto-Netto ↓
Lohnsteuer§32a EStG tariff + SolZ + KiSt
SozialversicherungKV · RV · AV · PV with ceilings
Statutory outputsLohnsteueranmeldung · Beitragsnachweis
RailsELSTER + GKV — built with a design partner

What's at stake

German payroll doesn't fine mistakes. It prosecutes them.

Every platform entering Germany carries the same quiet fear: that a contribution calculation, a missed Meldung, or a misread pay obligation lands on a managing director's desk as something far worse than a back-payment.

§266a StGBUnpaid social contributions are a criminal offence

Withholding employee social insurance contributions is prosecuted criminally — with personal liability for managing directors. Not a penalty notice; a criminal record.

The Phantomlohn trapContributions are owed on pay legally due — not pay actually paid

Underpay against minimum wage (€13.90/hour since January 2026) or a collective agreement, and social contributions are still owed on the higher amount. Audits four years back, plus interest.

Every month, every fundA deadline rhythm with no quiet failures

Wage tax to the Finanzamt by the 10th. Contribution statements to each employee's own Krankenkasse by the fifth-last banking day. Event-driven notifications — some due before an employee's first shift.

Your guide

The pack speaks German payroll natively. Your API doesn't have to.

We know what it's like to look at German payroll and see only acronyms with liability attached. The point of a regulation pack is that you never handle them raw: your integration stays the same API shape you built for Australia, and the Entgeltabrechnung pack absorbs the rest.

Inside the pack: the §32a EStG tax tariff with solidarity surcharge and church tax, all four social insurance branches with their contribution ceilings, minijob and Übergangsbereich handling, and statutory outputs in the formats the German system expects — verified by integration tests against real statutory logic, updated as versioned releases. EU-hosted, GDPR-native, with a proper Auftragsverarbeitung chain.

Native register

LSt, SolZ, KiSt, KV/RV/AV/PV, Umlagen — modelled as German payroll professionals know them.

Versioned compliance

Rate and ceiling changes (BBG, Zusatzbeitrag, Mindestlohn) ship as pack releases — never silent behaviour changes.

EU-hosted, GDPR-native

Data stays in the EU with a documented processor chain — the question German works councils ask first.

Clean boundaries

We carry calculation correctness; you keep payroll approval. Tax advice stays with Steuerberater — by design.

Live demonstration

This page is running the German pack right now.

Move the slider. Brutto-Netto below is computed in your browser — the 2026 §32a EStG tariff, solidarity surcharge, optional church tax, and all four social insurance branches with their 2026 contribution ceilings — the same shape of result the Ledra Pay API returns.

€60.000

Indicative figures for Steuerklasse I, 2026 tariff and contribution values (KV 14,6% + 2,9% Ø-Zusatzbeitrag, RV 18,6%, AV 2,6%, PV 3,6% / 4,2% kinderlos, ceilings €69.750 / €101.400, SolZ-Freigrenze €20.350). The production pack handles all tax classes, Faktorverfahren, minijobs, Übergangsbereich, Saxony's PV split, and Umlagen U1/U2/U3.

Entgeltabrechnung — Berlin ABRECHNUNG DE-2026-06 · STKL I
BruttoentgeltLAUFENDES ENTGELT—
Lohnsteuer§32a EStG · ELStAM STKL I—
Solidaritätszuschlag5,5% ÜBER FREIGRENZE—
KrankenversicherungAN-ANTEIL 7,3% + 1,45% ZUSATZ—
RentenversicherungAN-ANTEIL 9,3%—
ArbeitslosenversicherungAN-ANTEIL 1,3%—
PflegeversicherungAN-ANTEIL 1,8%—
Nettoentgelt—
Employer costBRUTTO + AG-ANTEILE KV/RV/AV/PV + U3 · U1/U2/BG VARY BY EMPLOYER—
Statutory outputs — preview CALC + PAY-RUN LIVE · LODGEMENT RAILS WITH DESIGN PARTNER 

        

      

    

  






  

    
The embeddable component

    
The calculator above is the engine. This is the UI you ship.

    
The same German payslip as a standard web component — drop it into your product, theme it with CSS variables (this one is wearing this page's palette), localise it. No Entgeltabrechnung layout to build, in any country. The full set — onboarding, employees, leave, pay runs — runs in the component playground →

    

      
    

    
<ledrapay-payslip-viewer country="DE">  ·  sample data, real component, themed inline

  






  

    
The obligations

    
Germany runs on a statutory metronome. The pack keeps time.

    
These are the employer obligations every German payroll must serve. Ledra Pay generates the data for all of them — and lodges them directly as each rail comes online.

    

      

        
Every month / every event

        
BY THE 10THLohnsteueranmeldungWage tax declaration to the Finanzamt via ELSTER

        
5TH-LAST BANK DAYBeitragsnachweisContribution statement to each employee's Krankenkasse

        
3RD-LAST BANK DAYContribution paymentSocial insurance contributions due at each fund

        
ON EVENTDEÜV-MeldungenHire, leave, and change notifications — Sofortmeldung before the first shift in regulated sectors

        
ON EVENTELStAM retrievalElectronic tax characteristics per employee (tax class, church tax, allowances)

        
ON EVENTEEL / AAG / BEASick-pay certificates, U1/U2 reimbursements, employment certificates — all electronic

      

      

        
Every year / continuous

        
15 FEBDEÜV JahresmeldungAnnual social insurance report per employee

        
16 FEBUV-LohnnachweisDigital accident insurance wage report

        
END OF FEBLohnsteuerbescheinigungAnnual electronic wage tax certificate per employee via ELSTER

        
EVERY 4 YEARS§28p BetriebsprüfungSocial insurance audit — payroll data delivered electronically via euBP

        
CONTINUOUSPayslips & recordsEntgeltabrechnung per §108 GewO, Lohnkonto retained six years, MiLoG time records in covered sectors

        
CONTINUOUSMinijob handlingMarginal employment via Minijob-Zentrale, pauschal taxation, earnings-limit monitoring

      

    

  






  

    
The plan

    
Three steps from here to German payroll you can stand behind.

    

      

        
01

        
Attach the pack

        
Same API, German pack. Run Brutto-Netto in your sandbox this week, then shadow-run against your incumbent's results — DATEV exports diff beautifully — before anything goes live.

        Calculation · live via Payroll Engine
      

      

        
02

        
Statutory outputs

        
The full pay-run lifecycle runs live — draft, preview, approve, finalise — and finalising commits a real payrun with committed per-employee results. Rendering those into filing artefacts (payslip PDFs, Lohnsteueranmeldung / Beitragsnachweis files, SEPA payment files) for your local process or Steuerberater is the near-term build.

        Output files · near-term
      

      

        
03

        
Rails, built together

        
Germany's filing layer is two certified channels: ELSTER/ERiC to the Finanzamt, and the GKV data exchange gated by ITSG Systemprüfung. We build them with a design partner whose launch sets the sequence.

        Design partner project
      

    

    
Said plainly: Germany's submission layer is a bigger build than Australia's single STP rail — ELSTER certification, then GKV transmission with ITSG Systemprüfung. That's exactly why it's scoped as a design-partner project, not promised as "in build". One more thing for EOR platforms: employing Germans through a leasing model requires an AÜG licence — that obligation sits with the platform's entity, and we'll help you map it.

  






  

    
Design partner program

    
Germany's rails get built with one design partner. Be that partner.

    
Thirty minutes with our team: Brutto-Netto end-to-end through the API, the statutory output files, and a shadow-run plan against your incumbent's German payruns.

    

      Book the demo
      See full country coverage →