HR-Glossar

Beitragsnachweis (contribution statement)

When the German contribution statement is due, why contributions fall due before the month ends and why the statement works as an enforceable demand.

1. What is Beitragsnachweis (contribution statement)?

The Beitragsnachweis is the report by which an employer tells the collection agency what total social security contributions it owes for a month, broken down by contribution group. The legal basis is Section 28f(3) SGB IV.

It is not a payment and not a report about individuals. It states totals. Who is employed there is said by the reports under Section 28a SGB IV; what is paid is said by the transfer. The contribution statement says what is owed.

Its legal effect is unusually far-reaching. Section 28f(3) SGB IV provides that for enforcement purposes the contribution statement counts as the collection agency's demand notice (*Leistungsbescheid*), and that in insolvency proceedings it serves to substantiate the claims. With it, the employer therefore creates an enforceable title against itself.

For a group used to filing a return and awaiting an assessment, that is the inversion worth noting: nothing is assessed here. What the employer states is immediately enforceable, and a statement that is too high is corrected only by a corrected statement.

2. Origin and development

Social security in Germany is financed out of current contributions; it pays pensions, sick pay and unemployment benefit from money coming in the same month. It therefore needs both promptly: the payment and the information about what to expect.

Out of that need grew a feature German tax law does not share. Contributions fall due in their expected amount before the month has been run. Section 23(1) SGB IV places them on the third-last banking day of the month in which the employment was performed. The employer therefore pays for a month whose final days have not yet happened – and corrects the difference in the following month.

Bringing the due date forward was a liquidity measure in favour of social security. For payroll it changed the working calendar permanently: the payroll run has to be finished before the month ends, not after it. Groups that set a global payroll calendar around month-end close find this is the German constraint that does not bend.

3. Core principles and how it works

Two working days before the due date

Section 28f(3) SGB IV requires transmission by data transfer two working days before the contributions fall due. The deadline therefore hangs on the due date, not on a fixed calendar day – and shifts with public holidays.

Due on the third-last banking day

Under Section 23(1) SGB IV contributions are due in their expected amount at the latest on the third-last banking day of the month of employment. Any remaining balance falls due in the following month.

Estimation where the deadline is missed

If the employer does not transmit in time, the collection agency may estimate the relevant pay until a proper statement is filed. The estimate takes effect like a determined amount – it does not disappear of its own accord.

Effect as a demand notice

For enforcement, the contribution statement counts as the collection agency's demand notice. A statement that is wrongly too high therefore creates an immediately enforceable claim – corrected by a corrected statement, not by waiting.

One collection agency per health insurance fund

Under Section 28h SGB IV the health insurance fund, as collection agency, collects the entire social security contribution – including the shares for pension, unemployment and long-term care insurance. A business therefore files as many statements as its employees have funds.

4. Who is Beitragsnachweis (contribution statement) relevant for?

- Every employer with employees subject to social security – no exception by size. - Payroll teams – the deadline, the transmission and the correction sit with them. - Businesses with marginal employees – for them the Minijob-Zentrale is the collection agency. - Treasury and accounting – a due date inside the current month ties up funds earlier than a payment in the following month. - Companies with outsourced payroll – the provider transmits, the duty stays with the employer.

5. How it differs from related terms

- Contribution statement and report under Section 28a SGB IV – the report concerns one person (registration, deregistration, annual report); the contribution statement states totals per contribution group. Two separate procedures with their own deadlines. - Contribution statement and payment – the statement says what is owed; the payment discharges the debt. Each has its own deadline, and they lie only two working days apart. - Contribution statement and payroll tax return – the same idea in two bodies of law, but different recipients, deadlines and time references. The payroll tax return follows when pay is received; the contribution statement follows when the entitlement arises. - Contribution statement and employer audit – the statement is the running report, the audit under Section 28p SGB IV the downstream control.

6. Variants and adaptations

Differences follow from the collection agency and the type of employment:

- Standard case – a statement to the health insurance fund of each employee as collection agency. - Marginal employment – the collection agency is the Minijob-Zentrale; the statement may also contain the flat-rate tax. In this case Section 28f(3) SGB IV expressly requires the employer's tax number to be stated. - Corrected statement – where an error is identified, a corrected statement must be transmitted. Simply balancing it out over the following month is not enough. - Standing statement – where the amounts stay the same, a statement can continue to apply until something changes. It does not relieve anyone of checking whether it is still right.

7. Advantages and challenges

Advantages

  • Clear deadlines named in statute, with no room for interpretation
  • Fully machine-based – transmitted out of the payroll system
  • A standing statement reduces the effort where circumstances are stable
  • The statement documents the contribution debt and serves as evidence at an audit
  • Corrections are possible at any time through a corrected statement

Challenges

  • A due date inside the current month forces the payroll run before month-end
  • Where the deadline is missed, the collection agency may estimate – and the estimate bites at once
  • As a demand notice, a statement that is too high creates an immediately enforceable claim
  • Public holidays shift the deadline and are regularly overlooked in doing so
  • One statement per health insurance fund – noticeable administration where there are many
  • Late payment surcharges arise without any reminder, through the passage of time alone

8. Best practices for implementation

Set the payroll run by the due date, not by month-end

Contributions fall due on the third-last banking day, the statement two working days before that. Planning the run for the last day of the month is structurally too late – however fast the work is done.

Put a public holiday calendar into the payroll plan

Banking days and working days shift differently by region. An annual plan with concrete dates prevents the missed deadline that otherwise arises in exactly those weeks with public holidays.

Clear errors through a corrected statement

A statement that is too high remains as a claim, even if less is paid in the following month. Clearing it belongs in a corrected statement.

With outsourced payroll, require evidence of transmission

The duty stays with the employer. A log of the statements transmitted belongs in the contract and in the monthly sign-off.

9. Tips for employers and employees

For employers

  • **Two working days before the due date** – Section 28f(3) SGB IV, not at month-end
  • **Due on the third-last banking day** – Section 23(1) SGB IV, in the expected amount
  • **Missing the deadline permits an estimate** – and the estimate stands until a statement is filed
  • **The statement is an enforcement title** – corrected only through a corrected statement

For employees

  • **The statement names no names** – your contributions are allocated through the reports under Section 28a SGB IV
  • **Check your payslip** – the contributions shown there are the basis of your entitlements
  • **If you have doubts about payment** – your own health insurance fund can tell you, as collection agency
  • **Check your pension record regularly** – it shows whether contributions arrived

10. Conclusion

The contribution statement is a summary report with an unusually sharp legal consequence: for enforcement it counts as the collection agency's demand notice. What it says is therefore an enforceable claim – even where it is too high. That is corrected only through a corrected statement, not by offsetting in the following month.

In practice it shapes the payroll working calendar more than any other report. Under Section 23(1) SGB IV contributions are due in their expected amount as early as the third-last banking day of the current month, and the statement two working days before that. The run must therefore be finished before the month is over. Anyone planning otherwise is not slow but structurally late – and carries the risk that the collection agency estimates the pay under Section 28f(3) SGB IV.

For an international group two consequences follow directly. A global payroll calendar built around month-end close does not fit Germany. And liquidity is tied up earlier than a monthly payment cycle suggests, because the payment leaves before the month it belongs to has ended.

A note on sources: there is no official English version of SGB IV. The provisions above are summarised, not quoted; the German original is cited below and the wording there governs.

Sources

Related terms

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