NW-Bound
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2008
- Messages
- 35,712
Exactly. And if you want to take the pension before official retirement age, there is of course a penalty, 0.3% per month. If you postpone, the payment increases by 0.5% per month.
It's taxable income, and health insurance is also deducted, so the net amount is less.
Edit to add: It's not "6003€ in tax", but "6003€ in pension contributions", but I guess that's what you meant. Income tax comes on top of that, of course.
Yes, I am aware that you have other taxes. By the way, SS is really a tax because the same as with a general tax, an individual is not guaranteed any return. SS is not a contractual obligation. The US Supreme Court said so in 1960 in the case of Flemming v. Nestor. You may not even get anything.
Anyway, it appears that the German system benefit is proportional to the lifetime contribution. The US SS is not. A worker with an annual income of $100K gets about 2.5X the benefits of one who makes $25K, not a 4X factor.
Also, one who works 40 years does not get 2x the benefits of one who works 20 years.