Leistungen A-Z

• Forms available: Yes
• Written form required: No
• Informal application possible: Yes
• Personal appearance required: No
• Online services available: Yes

The household cheque procedure is a simplified registration and contribution procedure for social security for private households. With the household cheque, you register a domestic help on a mini-job basis. You can also use the household check to make changes to your employment relationship or to deregister.
Mini-jobs in private households are a special form of marginal employment. They are particularly encouraged by the state through low social security contributions, a flat-rate wage tax and a tax reduction.
With the household cheque, the employer reports the essential data on employment in the private household. On this basis, the Minijob-Zentrale calculates the social security contributions, levies and taxes. It collects these charges from your account by direct debit every six months.

The mini-job centre takes over

• Notification to the statutory accident insurance,
• collection of accident insurance contributions,
• Payment of the lump sum tax to the tax authorities.

Family members as domestic help:

• A close relative can also have a mini-job with you as a domestic helper, which you must report to the mini-job centre. At the same time, the employment contract must not be concluded just for appearances. In addition, the activity must not be a family-like assistance.
• As a rule, paid employment between spouses is not possible. The same applies to children who provide services in the parental household as long as they belong to the household and are maintained by the parents.

Half-year cheque:

• If you pay your domestic help the monthly salary in different amounts instead of a constant fixed amount, you would have to submit a new household cheque from a purely legal point of view.
• To relieve you of this bureaucratic obligation, you can use a half-yearly cheque. The form covers a period of one calendar half-year. You simply enter the applicable months and certify the changing earnings.
• If you already indicate on the normal household cheque when you register that the salary paid fluctuates monthly, you will automatically receive a half-yearly cheque from the Minijob-Zentrale.

Change check:

• With the change cheque, you inform the Minijob-Zentrale if, for example, the amount of your domestic help's earnings, your bank details or a contact address has changed.

Notifications and certificates:

• At the beginning and end of employment and at the end of the year, the Minijob-Zentrale reports the individual data of each employed person resulting from the household cheque procedure to the data centre of the pension insurance institutions.
• The domestic help will receive a written notification of this. In addition, the mini-job centre of the accident insurance company transmits the data on private households.
• You will receive from the Minijob-Zentrale:
• before the respective due date, a decision on the amount of the duties to be collected for the corresponding tax period, and
• after the end of a calendar year, a certificate for the tax office with the following information:
• the period for which pension insurance contributions have been paid, and
• the amount of remuneration paid in the previous year and the taxes due thereon.

Household Check Calculator:

• You can easily determine the amount of the contributions to the mini-job center as well as the reduction in income tax with the household check calculator.
• As a general rule, since 1 January 2023, the employer's contributions to the mini-job centre have been a maximum of 14.94 percent of gross remuneration for private households. This is a maximum of EUR 77.69 per month (EUR 520.00 x 14.94 percent).

If the employee opts for the full pension insurance obligation, a share of his or her salary is also paid to the mini-job centre, up to a maximum of EUR 70.72 (EUR 520.00 x 13.6 percent) per month.

• They comply with the remuneration limit for marginally employed persons (EUR 520.00 per month).
• You are a private household and
• it is household-related work that is usually done by members of the household:
  • cook
  • clean
  • do laundry,
  • iron
  • shopping
  • Gardening
  • Care of children, the elderly, sick people or people in need of care as well as people with disabilities.
• You do not commission any craftsman work such as masonry or roofing work with the household check.

• Household cheque

There are no costs.

You can register your domestic help online or by phone, post or fax.

Online message:

• Go to the www.minijob-zentrale.de page and fill out the form online.
• Submit the form online.
• You will receive a confirmation.
• The Minijob-Zentrale will send you the SEPA direct debit mandate for signature and will automatically deduct the corresponding amount from you on the due dates.

Notification by post or fax:

• Go to the www.minijob-zentrale.de page and download the appropriate form.
• Print out the form, fill it out, sign it and send it by post or fax to the Minijob-Zentrale.
• The mini-job centre automatically deducts the corresponding amount from you on the due dates.

Alternatively, you can contact the Minijob Centre by telephone.

Note: The pension insurance number of the domestic help is assigned by the German Statutory Pension Insurance. The number can be found on the social security card of the domestic helper. If this is not known, enter the maiden name, date of birth, gender and place of birth of the employed person in the household cheque. When you register a domestic help for the first time, you will receive a company number from the Minijob-Zentrale as the employer. This also applies to all subsequent reports as well as to other employment. You should keep the car number in a safe place.

Due dates for households:

• on 31 July for the first half of the year, and
• on 31 January for the second half of the year.

Half-yearly check due to monthly fluctuating earnings:

• by 30 June for the first half of the year, and
• until 31 December for the second half of the year.

• § 8 Fourth Book of the Social Code (SGB IV)
• § 8a Fourth Book of the Social Code (SGB IV)
• Section 28a (7) of the Fourth Book of the Social Code (SGB IV)

There are the following indications:
If you do not report your employment to the Minijob-Zentrale (Minijob Centre), this is an administrative offence and can be punished with a fine of up to EUR 5,000.
You can use the contact form to transmit your message and attachments using secure data transfer and are thus protected against unauthorized access.

• Information on mini-jobs in private households on the website of the Minijob-Zentrale
• Household job exchange for employment in private households (free service of the Minijob-Zentrale)
• Household cheque calculator on the website of the Minijob-Zentrale
• Employment contract for low-paid employees in private households

Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS)