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German Pension Refund Calculator: How much pension refund will I get in Germany?

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1. Calculating Your Pension Refund

When you work in Germany as a normally employed person, you usually pay around 9.3% of your salary automatically every month to the German Pension Insurance (Deutsche Rentenversicherung). The percentage value changes over time. So as an example: If you worked in the year 2000 in Germany you paid 9.65% and in 2016 you paid 9.35%. Interesting is that Germany has an income ceiling until which you have to pay contributions to the German Pension insurance. This ceiling also changes over the years and differs between the region west and east within Germany and also between the two pension insurance institutions, the “Deutsche Rentenversicherung” and the “Knappschaft”. Without going too much into detail, an example will help you understand this logic. Imagine you worked in 2020 in Germany and earned 90,000€ / year gross. If you were insured at the “Deutsche Rentenversicherung” and you lived in West Germany you only paid contributions of 9.3% up to an income ceiling of 84,800€. For the rest (5,200€) you don’t have to pay pension contributions in Germany. I am making this example so you understand that when you had a high income while you worked in Germany, it does not automatically mean that you paid pension contributions on 100% of your salary. You can use our refund calculator that provides you with an estimate based on your monthly gross salary and the duration of your work in Germany, but always bear in mind, that this is a basic calculator which does not provide the exact figures.

Go directly to the refund calculator

It's also important to clarify that not all pension contributions are refundable. As an Expat, you are generally entitled to get a refund of the contributions you made yourself and not the ones made by your employer. As said the calculator gives you an idea of the refund amount but after you have made the eligibility check we ask you if you want the get a more precise calculation. What we do is to ask for your permission to request your insurance record at the German Pension insurance. The insurance record (Versicherungsverlauf) lists all of your pension periods and details about your contributions. We will provide you with the calculation and record, so you can check if it is correct and complete. But for now, first check if you are really eligible.

2. Eligibility Criteria for Expats

You have to understand the basic requirements to become eligible for the German Pension refund. These are defined by:

• Your nationality and potentially second nationality
• Your country of residence
• The time you worked in Germany and
• The time which has passed by since your last working day in Germany.

As you can imagine there are thousands of combinations. If you are not into the details, you can stop reading here and simply use our free eligibility check to get a quick idea if you can apply for an earlier pension refund.

If you want to dig deeper, let’s continue and go into each requirement area:

You can also go directly to the refund calculator

Requirement #1: Nationality

EU, EEA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) and Switzerland citizens: It is important to mention that these citizens are in generally will not be eligible for an earlier German Pension refund as these individuals are always allowed to pay contributions to the German Pension insurance, not matter where they live in the world. This rule is a bit confusing as you might think, as an example, I am a French citizen and I live outside of the EU and I also don’t pay pension contributions in Germany. But the fact that you don’t pay contributions does not matter. As EU citizen you have the legal right to voluntarily pay pension contributions in Germany and this fact alone makes you not eligibe for a Pension Refund. As always there are exceptions: You can apply if you are at least 67 years old and also if you do not qualify for a German pension.

Contracting countries: These are countries with which Germany has made a pension agreement. As of February 2024, this is the list of contracting states:

• Albania
• Brazil
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Chile
• India
• Israel
• Japan
• Canada and Quebec
• Kosovo
• Morocco
• North Macedonia
• Montenegro
• Philippines
• Republic of Korea
• Republic of Moldova
• Serbia
• Tunisia
• Turkey
• Uruguay
• USA

If you have a citizenship of one of above countries, chances are already good that you can receive a German pension refund but only if you fulfill Requirement #2, #3 and #4 at the same time.

Besides above-mentioned contracting countries, following countries are more complicated: Israel, Bosnian and Herzegovinia, UK, Japan, Korea, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Tunisia. We have dedicated a separate article to go further into details.

If you are a citizen of another country not listed above, your chances are also already good that you can get a Pension refund.

Get an idea of your expected refund with our online refund calculator

Requirement #2: Your country of residence

The country you live is important for the eligibility. If you live outside of the European Union, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia or Turkey you can already make a positive check mark on this requirement.

There is also one positive exception: If you are a non-EU and non-EEA citizen (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland), and you live in an EEA county you are still eligible. Here an example to make this easier: You are a US American and you live in Switzerland. This means that in general you are eligible to apply for the refund.

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Requirement #3: The time you worked in Germany

Now it becomes a bit tricky. The German Pension Insurance has set a rule, that if you have contributed to the German Pension system for 5 years or more, you then have the right to receive a regular pension, once you reach your retirement age. This sounds positive but it also means that once you hit the 5-year limit, you are no longer eligible to receive your early lump-sum pension refund. This rule applies to all nationals with which Germany has negotiated a contract/agreement – see above in requirement 1# for the list of these “Contracting countries”
Important: The 5-year waiting period does not apply for citizens of countries Germany has not made an agreement with.

Get an idea of your expected refund with our online refund calculator

Requirement #4: The time which has passed by since your last working day in Germany

There is a 24 months (2 year) waiting period before you can apply for a German Pension Refund. Many people think that the time starts to tick, once you left Germany, which is not true. The waiting period starts directly after you have finished working in Germany, so right after you have made your final contributions to the German Pension insurance (Deutsche Rentenversicherung). It is not realted to your date of departure. In order to get a detailed overview on when exactly your last day of contribution was, we will help you and request your official insurance record from the German Pension officials. This service is for free and you can request it right after the eligibility check.

In a nutshell and applicable for many cases, you are eligible for a lump-sum German Pension refund if:

• you paid less then 5 years (60 months) of contributions into the German Pension Insurance and
• the final time you worked in Germany and you made your final payment to the German pension insurance has been more than 2 years (24 months) ago and
• your current country of residence is NOT within the European Union, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia or Turkey.
• New Important Information on BREXIT: You live in the UK and you did NOT work in Germany before BREXIT (01.01.2021)

One more important information is: There is no minimum contribution period to apply for a earlier lump sum payout of your contributions but as mentioned in some cases there is a maximum period of 5 years.

Nationals of following countries, please read our separate article - Israel, Bosnian and Herzegovinia, UK, Japan, Korea, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Tunisia

If you meet the eligibility criteria for a German pension refund, you can look forward to receiving approximately 9.3% of your gross salary as refund. You can use our online calculator that can help you get a rough estimation. The calculator requires simple information such as your total contribution months and your gross salary. However, keep in mind these are only approximations.

Here you find our online refund calculator

3. Step-by-Step Guide to Claiming Your Refund

1st step / Eligibility Check: Start by determining your eligibility for the German Pension refund.

2nd step / Insurance Record and Calculation: Once eligibility is confirmed, we can help you to get your German Insurance Record and calculate more exactly how much you're supposed to get as a pension refund. In this step you can also review your insurance record and check if it is correct and complete. If there are periods missing, we will help you to clarify the situation with the pension officials.

3rd step / Refund Application: Don’t worry about the paperwork. We have spend many years in making this process digital. In the online process we help you to gather all the necessary documentation needed to apply for German pension refund, which typically includes identification documents and proof of residency. We help you to submit your application to the German Pension Insurance office digitally. The processing times can vary, thus, patience is needed at this step of the pension repayment process. If approved, the refund will be transferred to your nominated bank account in the currency you selected.

4. Conclusion

As an expat, navigating the German pension refund system may seem difficult at the beginning. However, our refund calculator, eligibility check and online process will help you to navigate. If you have further questions, feel free to also reach out to us via Whatsapp by simply clicking on the Whatsapp symbol “Start Chat”. We hope this article was useful for you and will be happy to assist you in the refund process.

Start now and get an idea of your expected refund with our online refund calculator