German Tax System: You're a Bitch

And here we go, another rant.

It all started when I got my bachelors degree some months ago. Usually people tend to be pretty happy about that and so was I. I even got a raise at the Fraunhofer Institute where I work to be able to pay my rent and all the neet gadgets I own.

I jumped up from about 400 Euros/month to 550 Euros/month. This resluted in my having to pay approx 9% of my money as annuity assurance. I personally think it's a good thing to to and I might even benefit from starting to pay early. So there I was, happily frolicking through the world with 500 euros of monthly income, hooray for me.

Today I recieved a letter from the AOK (my health insurance company) telling me that I'll have to pay 54,78 Euros health insurance and 11,26 Euros nursing insurance because I've got an income of more than 400 euros/month.

This results to the interesting situation that I could either keep working as long as I am now and earn 434 Euros OR I could work 10 hours/month less and earn 400 Euros.

The question is: do I really want to work for 3,40 Euros/hour with a university degree?

I don't think so…

They also mentioned that the BAf√ɬ∂G Amt will pay 59 euros which would be pretty nice… but they also will substract anything I earn over 400 euros from the amount they give me which will still make it suck.

So I could apply for BAföG, work less and make WAY more money than I would by simply continue working and paying my taxes as it is right now.