This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
  1. KudoZ™ Top
  2. German to English

Einkommen

English translation: income / earnings

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
German term or phrase:Einkommen
English translation:income / earnings
Entered by: Ken Cox

07:46 Jul 4, 2002
German to English translations [PRO]
Bus/Financial / tax, pension
German term or phrase: Einkommen
Before you get all excited, what I'm asking for is not so much a translation as a clarification with regard to the German tax system and related terminology. I'm working on a document dealing with pension funds for supplementary pensions ('Riester') and the word 'Einkommen' is used in several different contexts in which I suspect that in English (and possibly also in German ) the meanings are different.

First we have:
'Für ein Ehepaar ohne
Kinder ist die Bruttoumwandlung
mit Ersparnis
von Steuern und Sozialabgaben
in der Regel schon
ab einem sozialversicherungspflichtigen
Einkommen*
von 20000 Euro im
Jahr die bessere Entscheidung
gegenüber der Nettoumwandlung.'

And then:
'*Einkommen fließen
Ihnen aus Ihrem
Beschäftigungsver-
hältnis zu.Das sind
neben Ihrem Brutto-
lohn oder -gehalt auch
tarifliche und außer-
tarifliche Sonderzah-
lungen wie z.B.das
Weihnachtsgeld oder
die Arbeits-und Er-
folgsprämie (AEP).'

(The asterisks are in the original.)

And then there is a table with columns headed 'Einkommen 30,000 EUR/Jahr' and 'Einkommen 60,000 EUR/Jahr' , in which comparative figures are presented for Bruttoumwandlung and Nettoumwandlung and showing the amounts of Beitrag, Steurersparnis, Socialabgabenersparnis and EIgener Aufwand.

My question is: is what is meant of 'Einkommen' here: 'earnings', 'income' or sometimes one and sometimes the other?

What you receive from employment is income, but in all tax systems that I am familiar with 'income' is a more inclusive concept, and a distinction is made between 'income from employment' (earnings, pay, wages, salary) and other income (interest, inheritance, ...). I would expect social welfare contributions to be based on earnings, not (overall) income. However, in the comparative table, should EInkommen be understood to be total 'income'?
Ken Cox
Local time: 02:42
income, but you may have to explain what sort of income
Explanation:

The key to your problem here is the German expression "sozialversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" = "income for which compulsory retirement, medical, unemployment and/or geriatric care insurance contributions must be made". There have been some other KudoZ questions on this subject, with good reason because it is so, so, so complicated. One such question was:

http://www.proz.com/?sp=h&eid_c=411&id=217154&keyword=sozial...

Unless someone earns nothing, total earnings is a higher figure than either "steuerpflichtige Einkommen" = "taxable income" or "sozialversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" = "income for which compulsory retirement, medical, unemployment and/or geriatric care insurance contributions must be made", but the latter two are probably also never exactly the same figure. To arrive at these income figures, there are some extremely complex plusses and minuses to consider. For example:

1. Interest from savings or investment accounts (above a certain minimum level) are included in "taxable income" but ARE NOT included in the "sozialversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" for everyday employed persons. This same interest IS however included in the "krankenversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" and the "pflegeversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" parts of the "sozialversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" but not in the "rentenversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" for SOME self-employed persons earning less that a prescribed maximum (like me).

2. Some special payments like "das Weihnachtsgeld oder die Arbeits- und Erfolgsprämie (AEP)" ARE included in "sozialversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" but may not be included in "taxable income".

There, is that complicated enough? If not, there are even more winzige exceptions, inclusions, plusses and minuses.

Luckily, your context will always be talking about "income for which compulsory retirement, medical, unemployment and/or geriatric care insurance contributions must be made" because that is the income with which the "Riester-Rente" is concerned, not necessarily the "taxable income" or "total earnings". As everyone knows, Walter Riester is the current German Bundesminister für Arbeit und Sozialordnung = Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs (the official translation from this site: http://www.bma.de/index.cfm?8109085B03874F728056A88A22F302E8 where there is also more German and English info about the system in English and German). The "Riester-Rente" is the slang name for the new pension supplement system started during his term of office.

Depending on whatever else is in your translation text, you may have to insert the phrase, "income for which compulsory retirement, medical, unemployment and/or geriatric care insurance contributions must be made", near the beginning to make things clear and then use only "income" after that.

HTH

Dan


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2002-07-04 10:00:59 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I\'ve just found another official site:

http://www.bma.de/download/broschueren/A998.pdf

that shows there was an error in my suggestion above and also wrong in my suggestion to the old KudoZ question mentioned above. I translated the German term \"Pflegeversicherung\" as \"geriatric care insurance\", but I forgot that although the program is primarily intended for the long-term care of the aged, it also includes younger persons with disabilities of such a serious long-term nature that they would not be covered by the standard health (medical) insurance. The official translation is:

\"long-term care insurance\"

So please strike \"geriatric care insurance\" everywhere in my above answer and insert \"long-term care insurance\".

Sorry \'bout that!

Not quite so important but also differing from my suggestion, the BMA document uses the translations:

\"health insurance\" and not \"medical insurance\"

\"pension insurance\" and not \"retirement insurance\"

For these last two, I like my suggestions better.

Dan
Selected response from:

Dan McCrosky (X)
Local time: 02:42
Grading comment
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +5Income
Astrid Cruse
4 +2earnings = Einkommen, income = netto Einkommen
Klaus Dorn (X)
4 +1income, but you may have to explain what sort of income
Dan McCrosky (X)
47 Einkunftsarten
Joy Christensen
47 Einkunftsarten
Joy Christensen
47 Einkunftsarten
Joy Christensen


  

Answers


8 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
earnings = Einkommen, income = netto Einkommen


Explanation:
I studied German tax law - in there we differentiated between "Einkommen", which is everything one earns, hence "earnings" in English and "Einkünfte", which is what describes the actual income after deducting of non-taxable amounts.

I would imagine the same applies here, so in your text above "ab einem sozialversicherungspflichtigen
Einkommen*
von 20000 Euro im
Jahr die bessere Entscheidung..." ths is income and in the part of the text "Einkommen fließen
Ihnen aus Ihrem
Beschäftigungsver-
hältnis zu." it is earnings.


Klaus Dorn (X)
Local time: 03:42
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in GermanGerman
PRO pts in pair: 1514

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Astrid Cruse: Mir scheint die Fußnote extra eine Erklärung zum Begriff "Einkommen". Daher würde ich im Englischen nicht zwei unterschiedliche Begriffe verwenden.
3 mins
agree  Andrzej Lejman
5 mins
neutral  TService (X): Wenn, dann "Nettoeinkommen". (Ja, nennt mich 'nen Haarspalter, aber das sind wirklich unterschiedliche Dinge, wenn man Wörter trennt.)
24 mins
agree  Сергей Лузан
5 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

9 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +5
Income


Explanation:
Auch im Deutschen ist "Einkommen" umfassender als in der einschränkenden obigen Definition. (z.B. Einkommen aus Kapitalerträgen, Einkommen aus Nichtselbstständiger Arbeit, Einkommen aus Selbstständiger Arbeit usw.)

Da hier jedoch "Einkommen" eindeutig definiert ist, würde ich die Übersetzung durchgängig mit "income" anfertigen. Ein Wechsel zwischen "income" und "earnings" wäre verwirrend.

Hth,

Gruß, Astrid


    own experience
Astrid Cruse
Local time: 02:42
Native speaker of: German
PRO pts in pair: 122

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Andrzej Lejman: But we have Personal Income Tax; you could hardly say "Personal Earnings Tax" (Minister of Finance would be happy!)
3 mins
  -> ... that's why I suggested "Income" as translation - or did I miss something?
agree  TService (X): Jooo... ;)
21 mins
agree  Lydia Molea: I think income works just fine
1 hr
agree  Jeannie Graham: Income is fine
1 hr
agree  Chris Rowson (X): I think Astrid is completely correct.
4 hrs
agree  Kathi Stock
9 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
income, but you may have to explain what sort of income


Explanation:

The key to your problem here is the German expression "sozialversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" = "income for which compulsory retirement, medical, unemployment and/or geriatric care insurance contributions must be made". There have been some other KudoZ questions on this subject, with good reason because it is so, so, so complicated. One such question was:

http://www.proz.com/?sp=h&eid_c=411&id=217154&keyword=sozial...

Unless someone earns nothing, total earnings is a higher figure than either "steuerpflichtige Einkommen" = "taxable income" or "sozialversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" = "income for which compulsory retirement, medical, unemployment and/or geriatric care insurance contributions must be made", but the latter two are probably also never exactly the same figure. To arrive at these income figures, there are some extremely complex plusses and minuses to consider. For example:

1. Interest from savings or investment accounts (above a certain minimum level) are included in "taxable income" but ARE NOT included in the "sozialversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" for everyday employed persons. This same interest IS however included in the "krankenversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" and the "pflegeversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" parts of the "sozialversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" but not in the "rentenversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" for SOME self-employed persons earning less that a prescribed maximum (like me).

2. Some special payments like "das Weihnachtsgeld oder die Arbeits- und Erfolgsprämie (AEP)" ARE included in "sozialversicherungspflichtigen Einkommen" but may not be included in "taxable income".

There, is that complicated enough? If not, there are even more winzige exceptions, inclusions, plusses and minuses.

Luckily, your context will always be talking about "income for which compulsory retirement, medical, unemployment and/or geriatric care insurance contributions must be made" because that is the income with which the "Riester-Rente" is concerned, not necessarily the "taxable income" or "total earnings". As everyone knows, Walter Riester is the current German Bundesminister für Arbeit und Sozialordnung = Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs (the official translation from this site: http://www.bma.de/index.cfm?8109085B03874F728056A88A22F302E8 where there is also more German and English info about the system in English and German). The "Riester-Rente" is the slang name for the new pension supplement system started during his term of office.

Depending on whatever else is in your translation text, you may have to insert the phrase, "income for which compulsory retirement, medical, unemployment and/or geriatric care insurance contributions must be made", near the beginning to make things clear and then use only "income" after that.

HTH

Dan


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2002-07-04 10:00:59 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I\'ve just found another official site:

http://www.bma.de/download/broschueren/A998.pdf

that shows there was an error in my suggestion above and also wrong in my suggestion to the old KudoZ question mentioned above. I translated the German term \"Pflegeversicherung\" as \"geriatric care insurance\", but I forgot that although the program is primarily intended for the long-term care of the aged, it also includes younger persons with disabilities of such a serious long-term nature that they would not be covered by the standard health (medical) insurance. The official translation is:

\"long-term care insurance\"

So please strike \"geriatric care insurance\" everywhere in my above answer and insert \"long-term care insurance\".

Sorry \'bout that!

Not quite so important but also differing from my suggestion, the BMA document uses the translations:

\"health insurance\" and not \"medical insurance\"

\"pension insurance\" and not \"retirement insurance\"

For these last two, I like my suggestions better.

Dan


Dan McCrosky (X)
Local time: 02:42
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 1541

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  stefana
2 days 12 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

10 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
7 Einkunftsarten


Explanation:
This is almost like the daily prayer of a German tax official -- "Es gibt doch die sieben Einkunftarten, und eins davon ist das Einkommen aus Vermietung und Verpachtung". That is the quasi-income that a homeowner incurs compared to the citizen who rents the necessary roof over his/her head. So "Einkommen" definitely encompasses a number of monetary sources.

Joy Christensen
Local time: 02:42
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 24
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

10 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
7 Einkunftsarten


Explanation:
This is almost like the daily prayer of a German tax official -- "Es gibt doch die sieben Einkunftarten, und eins davon ist das Einkommen aus Vermietung und Verpachtung". That is the quasi-income that a homeowner incurs compared to the citizen who rents the necessary roof over his/her head. So "Einkommen" definitely encompasses a number of monetary sources.

Joy Christensen
Local time: 02:42
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 24
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

10 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
7 Einkunftsarten


Explanation:
This is almost like the daily prayer of a German tax official -- "Es gibt doch die sieben Einkunftarten, und eins davon ist das Einkommen aus Vermietung und Verpachtung". That is the quasi-income that a homeowner incurs compared to the citizen who rents the necessary roof over his/her head. So "Einkommen" definitely encompasses a number of monetary sources.

Joy Christensen
Local time: 02:42
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 24
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.

You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.

Return to KudoZ list

KudoZ™ translation help

The KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases.

See also:
ProZ.com term search
Search millions of term translations
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search