Part-time self-employment in Germany – health insurance, pension insurance – what do I need to know?
Many professionals in Germany discover part-time self-employment for themselves for a variety of reasons. They have an employment relationship with an employer and, at the same time, they work as self-employed consultants, programmers, software developers or designers. The employment relationship does not always have to be the main source of income. Often, the income from the various activities changes over the years. The problem is that the professionals do not realize that they may have to pay social security contributions in Germany that they are unaware of.
In this blog post, I would therefore like to give you an overview of what you need to be aware of in terms of social security law in Germany when it comes to part-time self-employment:
1. Part-time self-employment and health insurance in Germany
Depending on the extent to which you are permanently employed, you are usually covered by your employer’s statutory health insurance through your employment relationship. If you earn additional income as a self-employed person (so-called: freelancer, contractor or “Freiberufler”, you do not have to pay additional public health insurance contributions if the employment relationship predominates in terms of time and finances.
Only when you become ‘mainly self-employed” („hauptberuflich selbstständig erwerbstätig“) do you lose your insurance status through your employer (so-called compulsory health insurance / Krankenversicherungspflicht) and have to take out health insurance on your own, either via a private insurance company or public voluntary health insurance authority (in 2025, the public health insurance contribution is approx. 17%). This results from § 5 para. 5 SGB V.
According to paragraph 1 no. 1 or 5 to 12, no one is subject to compulsory insurance who is primarily self-employed. For persons who, in connection with their self-employment, regularly employ at least one employee in a more than minor capacity, it is assumed that they are primarily self-employed; for shareholders, employees also include the company’s employees.
However, the term ‘mainly self-employed’ is not defined by law and the specific interpretation is left to the public health insurance authority. You should therefore inform your public health insurance authority from the outset about your sideline self-employment and also if the scope of work and earned income from self-employment change significantly in relation to your employment.
Generally speaking, if the employment relationship still predominates in terms of time and finances and you do not employ any staff of your own, you will remain covered by public health insurance through your employment relationship. This has the advantage that you do not then have to pay additional health insurance contributions on your income from self-employment.
If you have failed to notify the public health insurance authority of your part-time self-employment and you now earn significantly more from your self-employment than from your employment, it makes sense to have your case checked by a lawyer first in order to be able to assess the effects of this misconduct.
Unfortunately, the public health insurance authorities do not provide sufficient information about the consequences of significant changes in the scope of work and income from self-employment.
2. Part-time self-employment and pension insurance in Germany
The situation is different with regard to pension insurance: If you are actually self-employed (which means you are not working under a bogus self-employment), but in the long term and essentially only work for one client (so-called solo self-employment or “arbeitnehmerähnliche Tätigkeit“), you are obliged to pay pension insurance contributions in accordance with. § 2 sentence 1 no. 9 SGB VI, even if you already pay pension insurance contributions through your employment relationship and even if you are actually self-employed under German social security law! For more information on the subject of compulsory pension insurance for self-employed persons in contrast to bogus self-employment, please read this blog post.
The DRV assumes, among other things, that you will essentially only work for one client in the long term if you generate at least 5/6 of your turnover from just one client. However, this is a forecast assessment, so it is important that you were able to estimate in advance that you would essentially only work for one client in the long term. Therefore, it may be useful to have a lawyer check whether you actually meet the criteria of § 2 sentence 1 no. 9 SGB VI or not, and, above all, from when on.
3. Bogus self-employment also applies to part-time self-employment in Germany
It is particularly important to know that even if you are employed, you can still be classified as a bogus self-employed if you work for one (or more) clients and meet the criteria for bogus self-employment. The fact that you are already employed do not protects you from being classified as bogus self-employed with regard to your part-time self-employment.
In particular, if you work for one or more foreign clients, you should always check carefully whether you meet all the criteria for self-employment in Germany. If contractors in Germany working for foreign clients are classified as bogus self-employed, it cannot be ruled out that you as a contractor will later be held liable by the DRV for the total social security contribution, citing § 28m (1) SGB IV (for more information, read this blog post).
The first point of reference for checking whether there is any apparent self-employment is the so-called contractor agreement. Especially in the case of contractor agreements that are subject to the Anglo-American foreign legal system (USA, Israel, Canada), they often contain clauses that could fulfil the criteria for apparent self-employment under German social security law.
Therefore, it is always advisable to have a contractor agreement checked by a lawyer before (!) you sign it.
4. What happens if I have not paid social security contributions?
The social security obligations are complex and sometimes confusing (e.g. what is the difference between compulsory pension insurance as a self-employed person and bogus self-employment) and it is not uncommon for part-time self-employed persons to be unaware that they are also subject to compulsory pension insurance or that they are no longer entitled to health insurance through their employment relationship.
The general limitation period for unpaid social security contributions is 4 years in accordance with § 25 SGB IV.Since the current pension insurance contribution is 18.6% and the health insurance contribution is around 17%, the DRV and/or the health insurance authority can accumulate considerable back payment claims.
If you are concerned that you may have inadvertently failed to meet your contribution obligations, it makes sense to have your case checked by a lawyer before you contact the relevant authorities and possibly draw misleading conclusions at your expense. In my experience, the public health insurance authorities and the DRV do not provide clear information about the legal situation, because they often only look at individual aspects of the overall situation and send forms that are difficult for the person concerned to understand. There is a lack of general legal understanding and comprehensible information.
What is technically possible should not fail because of bureaucracy!
As a lawyer, I have therefore specialised in cross-border mobile working (so-called Global Mobility Law under German Law) and advise digital companies, self-employed people and employees on legal issues on a daily basis in order to make mobile working legally feasible in Germany.
What clients say about my work on anwalt.de and Google.
5. Are you a tax consultant?
Do you work as a tax consultant (e.g. specialist in international tax law) in the field of international tax law? Feel free to contact me!
In order to provide my clients with the best possible service, I am happy to network with tax advisors who can take over the tax declaration obligations for my clients and are interested in a professional exchange.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Your lawyer
Romy Graske
