Foreign Parental Benefits and Elterngeld: Deduction, Suspension and Cross-Border Workers

A benefit is comparable if it is paid because of the birth or for caring for the child after the birth. Its name does not matter. It can come from another country or from an international organisation, such as institutions of the United Nations, the European Union or the International Labour Organization (§ 3 Abs. 1 Nr. 3 BEEG).

The law refers to benefits that any person entitled under § 1 BEEG can claim. According to the administrative guidelines, this includes benefits the other parent is entitled to abroad.

This rule mainly covers cases outside EU coordination, so countries outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland, and international organisations.

• •The foreign benefit is deducted from your Elterngeld in full.
• •If it covers only part of a life month, it is deducted only from that part (§ 3 Abs. 1 Satz 2 BEEG).
• •The 300 € protected amount does not apply (§ 3 Abs. 2 BEEG).
• •Life months in which you are entitled to such a benefit count as months in which you take Basiselterngeld (§ 4 Abs. 4 Satz 3 BEEG). This affects how many months you have left.

As long as you have not applied for a comparable foreign benefit you may be entitled to, your German Elterngeld rests up to the possible amount of that benefit (§ 3 Abs. 3 BEEG). If the amount cannot be determined until the foreign authority decides, the Elterngeldstelle may pay only what would be left after deducting the maximum foreign benefit.

If benefits from an EU country, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland are involved, the EU coordination rules apply instead (Regulation (EC) No 883/2004). In short, for working parents the country of employment comes first, and for parents who do not work, the country of residence. If Germany is not the first country, it may pay the difference between its Elterngeld and the other country's benefit.

Some parents work in Germany but live in another country. If a double taxation agreement gives your country of residence the right to tax German Elterngeld, and that country actually taxes it, the Elterngeldstelle calculates your Elterngeld-Netto without deductions for income tax, solidarity surcharge and church tax (§ 2e Abs. 7 BEEG). For employed income, one twelfth of the employee allowance is then not deducted either (§ 2c Abs. 4 BEEG). Both raise your Elterngeld.

If your country of residence does not tax the Elterngeld, including when the double taxation agreement exempts it, the normal rules apply.

On request, cross-border workers whose income is actually taxed in another EU country and who have no German tax class can have their Elterngeld calculated with the taxes actually paid there, according to the administrative guidelines.