Accounts in Germany
Every kind of account and pension the planner offers in Germany: what each one is, when money can come out, how it is taxed, and the pages we read the rules from.
Most German retirement income comes from the state pension and from products that pay an income for life or for a set term: a company pension (Betriebsrente), a Riester or Ruerup pension, or a private pension insurance. Those go in the pension step, each with its own kind. Germany has no tax-free investment account, so the savings you draw on yourself sit in an ordinary investment account (Depot).
From 2027 the reform of private pensions adds one pension you draw down rather than one that pays you an income: the pension depot (Altersvorsorgedepot). It has its own row in the money step.
Rules as of the 2026 tax year, read from the authorities on 2026-07-27. Each account lists the pages we read it from.
Accounts you can enter
Investment account
Dividends and interest are taxed each year, and profit is taxed when you sell. Life insurance you take as a lump, shares or funds bought before 2009 and gold also go here.
Funds, shares, bonds and deposits held at a bank or broker. Interest, dividends and the profit when you sell are taxed at a flat 26.375% (25% plus the solidarity surcharge), above an allowance of 1,000 a person each year that does not move with prices. Funds are also charged each year on a small assumed return even when you sell nothing, while 30% of a share fund's income and profit is tax free. That is why the money step asks what you hold.
Some older holdings are taxed less than the plan assumes: shares bought before 2009 are free of tax on sale, and funds bought before 2009 are free up to a lifetime allowance. Both are listed with the tax page's simplifications.
How it is taxed, rate by rate, is on the tax page.
- In the withdrawal orders
- With the ordinary accounts
- Pays out
- Whenever you like
- At the first death
- Your partner takes it over as it stands
Pension depot (Altersvorsorgedepot, from 2027)
Nothing is taxed while it grows. It pays out from 65, or earlier alongside your state pension, and no later than 70: up to 30% as a lump at the start, then each month at least 80% of what is left spread to 85. Every payment is taxed as income, with no health or care contributions. A Riester, Ruerup or company pension pays an income instead, so it belongs with your pensions.
The pension depot is the new state-supported pension account created by the 2026 reform of private pensions: a depot of funds, with state top-ups and tax relief on what you pay in. Contracts can only be taken out from 1 January 2027, so nobody holds one yet. The row is there for a plan that expects to pay into one. It takes over from the Riester contract for new savers, and Riester contracts already signed carry on.
Nothing is taxed while it grows, and nothing can come out before the payouts start, at an age you choose between 65 and 70, or earlier if your state pension starts earlier. In the first year up to 30% can come out as a lump. After that each year pays at least a minimum: 80% of what is left, spread over the years to the plan's end, fixed for three years at a time. The plan ends at 85 or later, as your contract sets. Every payment, the lump included, is taxed in full as income.
The plan pays at least that minimum and at most what is left divided by the years to the end, plus the lump in the first year. What you do not need that year moves to your ordinary account. It asks the age your plan ends, 85 unless you say later, and pays what is left with the last payment.
The plan charges no health or care insurance contributions on the payments. That follows from how the law treats state-supported pension savings, and the tax office says so for Riester contracts, but no official source confirms it for the new depot yet.
- In the withdrawal orders
- With the accounts taxed on the way out
- Before the earliest age
- Nothing comes out before the age the law sets for it
- Pays out
- At least a legal minimum every year
- At the first death
- Your partner takes it over as it stands
- Age the payments start From the earliest age it pays out to 70. We assume 65.
- Age the payout plan ends From 85 to 100. We assume 85.
A pension depot from 2027 pays out under a plan with a minimum each month and up to 30 percent as a lump at the start. How much more than the plan you may take in a year is not settled in the law yet: we allow the value divided by the years left to 85, plus the lump in the first year. If your contract lets you take more, your plan may draw from your other savings sooner than it needs to.
Could go either way/anyone with an Altersvorsorgedepot (contracts from 2027) who would draw more from it than the plan's pace
If you take the lump at the start of a pension depot's payouts, the monthly minimum falls to what is left. We keep the minimum of the whole depot until the next three-yearly reset, so in those years the plan may pay out more than it has to, and taxes it then rather than later.
Could go either way/a pension depot holder who takes the start-year lump
- Bundesministerium der Finanzen: Fragen und Antworten zur Reform der geförderten privaten Altersvorsorge (read 2026-10-07)
- Bundesgesetzblatt: Gesetz zur Reform der steuerlich geförderten privaten Altersvorsorge (BGBl. 2026 I Nr. 156) (read 2026-10-07)
- Bundesministerium der Justiz: Einkommensteuergesetz § 22: Arten der sonstigen Einkünfte (read 2026-10-07)
The law behind it
Kinds of pension
A pension paid to you as an income goes in the pension step, not here. Choose its kind there and the plan taxes it by that kind's rules; leave it on standard and it is taxed like a state or workplace pension.
Private annuity (Leibrente)
Only part of each payment is taxed, set by your age when payments start: 17% if you start at 67.
A private pension insurance (Rentenversicherung) paying for life, or an older life insurance policy taken as an annuity. The share that is taxed is fixed for life by your age in the year payments start, and later increases are taxed at that same share. If you are in the health insurance scheme for pensioners, no health or care contributions are due on it.
An annuity that pays for a set number of years instead of for life is taxed on a share set by its length, which this kind does not cover.
A private annuity that pays for a fixed number of years instead of for life is taxed in Germany on a share set by how long it runs. We only know the share for annuities paid for life, so a fixed term private annuity cannot be given its own treatment yet.
Could go either way/people with a private annuity paid for a fixed number of years
- Finanzverwaltung NRW: Leistungen aus der privaten Altersvorsorge (read 2026-10-07)
- Bundesministerium der Justiz: Einkommensteuergesetz § 22: Arten der sonstigen Einkünfte (read 2026-10-07)
The law behind it
Riester pension (Riester-Rente)
Taxed in full as income, with no health or care insurance contributions on it.
Payments from a Riester contract, as an income for life or in instalments under a payout plan. For instalments, enter the age they stop. Every euro is taxed because the contributions got tax relief and state top-ups. A contract into which some money went without that support is taxed less on that part, which this kind does not split out.
Some German company and Riester pensions were paid for partly with money that was already taxed: older direct insurance contracts from before 2005, the public sector supplementary scheme, and Riester contracts with unsubsidised payments. That part of the pension is taxed only on a small share, yet company pensions still carry health and care contributions. We cannot split a pension that way yet, so for these we show more tax than you pay.
Your real tax is lower/people with a pre-2005 direct insurance pension, a public sector supplementary pension, or a partly unsubsidised Riester contract
- Finanzverwaltung NRW: Riester: Besteuerung der späteren Auszahlungen (read 2026-10-07)
- Bundesministerium der Finanzen: Fragen und Antworten zur Reform der geförderten privaten Altersvorsorge (read 2026-10-07)
- Bundesministerium der Justiz: Einkommensteuergesetz § 22: Arten der sonstigen Einkünfte (read 2026-10-07)
- Bundesministerium der Justiz: Sozialgesetzbuch V § 229: Versorgungsbezüge als beitragspflichtige Einnahmen (read 2026-10-07)
The law behind it
Company pension (Betriebsrente)
Taxed in full as income, and health and care insurance contributions are due on it.
A company pension from a pension fund (Pensionskasse, Pensionsfonds) or a direct insurance (Direktversicherung) paid for from untaxed pay. Health and care contributions are due on it above a monthly allowance.
A pension paid directly by your former employer or its support fund (Direktzusage, Unterstützungskasse) is taxed like wages, with an allowance from 63 that this kind does not give, so for it we show a little too much tax.
Some German company and Riester pensions were paid for partly with money that was already taxed: older direct insurance contracts from before 2005, the public sector supplementary scheme, and Riester contracts with unsubsidised payments. That part of the pension is taxed only on a small share, yet company pensions still carry health and care contributions. We cannot split a pension that way yet, so for these we show more tax than you pay.
Your real tax is lower/people with a pre-2005 direct insurance pension, a public sector supplementary pension, or a partly unsubsidised Riester contract
People without children pay a higher care insurance rate in Germany, 4.2 percent instead of 3.6, on their state and workplace pensions. We charge the parents' rate, so for someone without children we show a little less than they pay: about 120 a year on a 20,000 pension.
Your real tax is higher/up to €120 a year/pensioners in Germany without children
- Finanzverwaltung NRW: Leistungen aus der betrieblichen Altersversorgung (read 2026-10-07)
- Bundesministerium der Justiz: Einkommensteuergesetz § 22: Arten der sonstigen Einkünfte (read 2026-10-07)
- Bundesministerium der Justiz: Sozialgesetzbuch V § 229: Versorgungsbezüge als beitragspflichtige Einnahmen (read 2026-10-07)
The law behind it
Where other things you hold go
- Ruerup pension (Basisrente) or a pension from a professional scheme (Versorgungswerk)
- Enter it in the pension step. It has no kind of its own yet, and as a standard pension it is taxed in full with health and care contributions it does not owe. Entering what reaches you after tax avoids that.
- A Riester contract you are still paying into
- It is not an account here. Enter the pension it will pay in the pension step, as a Riester pension. No new Riester contracts can be signed from 2027; existing ones carry on, and can be moved into the new state support.
- Life insurance or pension insurance taken as a lump (Kapitallebensversicherung)
- Enter it in the investment account. Its growth is then taxed like a fund's. The law taxes only half the growth, at your income rate, on a policy held 12 years and paid after 62 (60 for a policy from before 2012), and usually leaves a policy from before 2005 untaxed, so for these we show too much tax.
- A company or Riester pension taken as a single lump
- Enter it as a one-off lump in the year it is paid, after tax. The lump is taxed in full as income that year, and a lump sum entered before tax is never taxed in the plan.