Budgeting
You can set up the German employer social charges and the TV FFS premiums once, apply them to every wage account and cap them correctly for actors.
In Germany the employer pays a share of health, care, pension and unemployment insurance on every wage, plus a few levies. For highly paid days, such as an actor's, these charges stop at a contribution ceiling. You set them up once, and every wage account then calculates them the same way. The rates are the 2026 values.
This article is not payroll advice. Have your payroll office confirm U1, U2 and the rate of the employers' liability insurance (BG).
The templates **FFA 2026** and **FFA 2026 Gagen mit Phasen** already contain steps 1 to 4: the groups `DE 2026` and `DE 2026 Selbständige`, the collect-in accounts 157, 158 and 159, the timebase in every account budgeted in weeks and two fringe presets. In the second, each person's wage account is already split into the subaccounts Vorbereitung, Dreh and Abwicklung. Choose one under **New Budget** and continue with step 5.
Create one account for the money, for example **Social Charges**. Every fringe below collects in this account. See [how collect-in accounts work](/kb/article/how-collect-in-accounts-work).
You can rename the account later. The fringes stay linked to it.
In the account details, click  **Settings for account details** and then **Fringes & Supplements**. On the **Fringes** tab, click  **Group** and name the group `DE 2026`. Then click  **Fringe** once for each row of this table:
| Fringe Name | Percentage | Limit Per Day | | ------------------------- | ---------- | ------------- | | Health insurance | 8.75 | 16.95 | | Care insurance | 1.80 | 3.49 | | Pension insurance | 9.30 | 26.20 | | Unemployment insurance | 1.30 | 3.66 | | Levy U1 | 1.50 | 4.23 | | Levy U2 | 0.39 | 1.10 | | Levy U3 | 0.15 | 0.42 | | Employers' liability (BG) | 0.80 | empty | | Pension fund | 4.00 | 11.27 |
In **Collect In Budget Account**, choose your social charges account on every row. From the second row on, KOSMA asks first, because the account already collects other rows. Click **Continue**.
Add to collection account? This account already collects other calculations. Add this one to it?
- Health insurance is 7.3 % plus half of your fund's additional rate. 8.75 % is the 2026 average. - In Saxony, care insurance is `1.30` with a limit of `2.52`. - For U1 and U2, use the rates of your health insurance fund. - The pension fund and the employers' liability insurance follow rules of their own. They are covered below.
Since 1 July 2025 a collective agreement on occupational old-age provision applies to film and television workers. Where the employee converts 4 % of their pay, the production adds 4 %. Both go to Pensionskasse Rundfunk.
The contribution runs at most up to the pension insurance contribution ceiling, 8,450 € a month. That is 4 % of 281.67 € a day, a day limit of `11.27`. Only productions under the Limburg arrangement have no ceiling; leave the day limit empty there. Where nobody converts anything, no employer contribution arises either; untick the row on that account.
Statutory accident insurance is paid by the employer alone. BG ETEM covers the production of feature and television films. Its contribution is not a percentage of the wage:
In the BG ETEM risk tariff, film and television film production sits in tariff position 1311 at risk class 2.9; animation, dubbing and digital post-production in position 1312 at 1.6. The contribution rate is set each year in arrears, most recently in May 2026 at 2.77 EUR. Your values are on your assessment notice.
Divide the contribution by the pay to get this row's percentage. 72.30 EUR on 9,000 EUR comes to 0.80 %.
Compare your limits with this calculation when a rate changes. The contribution ceiling is published per month: 5,812.50 € for health and care insurance, and 8,450 € for pension, unemployment insurance and the levies. Divided by 30, that is 193.75 € and 281.67 € per calendar day.
**Limit Per Day** is the highest charge per day in euros. You therefore multiply the daily ceiling by the rate:
If you enter the daily ceiling itself, for example 193.75, KOSMA caps the fringe at the wrong amount and shows no message.
Create a second group, `DE 2026 Freelancers`, with one row: Artists' social insurance levy, `4.9`, no limit. Click **Ok**.
The producer pays this levy (KSA) on fees to self-employed artists and journalists. It does not apply to employees or to invoices from companies.
You can apply the group to several wage accounts at once. The selected accounts must carry no fringes or supplements yet, or exactly the same ones. KOSMA gives every selected account the fringes and supplements, the setting **Automatically add wage fringes to supplements**, the subaccount ticks and the **Timebase (days) for fringe limits** of the account you select first. A formula such as `ACCOUNT_QTY * 7` then counts each account's own quantity. A number applies to every account as it is.
The timebase of the first account replaces the timebase of the other accounts. In a budget from an FFA 2026 template, select the accounts budgeted in weeks together, and apply the group to the other accounts in a second round.
If some of the selected accounts have subaccounts, select one of them first. KOSMA copies the subaccount ticks only from an account that has subaccounts. To select the wage accounts, hold ⌘ (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) and click each one, see [work in the budget grid](/kb/article/work-in-the-budget-grid). In the account details, click  **Edit fringes & supplements** in the **Fringes & Supplements** panel. With two or more accounts selected, KOSMA shows at the top of the dialog:
Applies to {number} rows.
Under **Apply to subaccounts**, tick **All**. Tick the group `DE 2026` and click **Ok**.
Every subaccount now has a tick, for example Prep, Shoot and Wrap. Each fringe row then shows its share of the account's wage.
For each actor, enter the number of contract days in **Timebase (days) for fringe limits**, for example `8`. Actors earn a lot in a few days. Without a day count, KOSMA calculates their charges on the full fee.
Give each actor their own account, so that each has their own day count.
- Count shoot days, rehearsals, fittings, make-up tests, dubbing, press days with a fixed date and travel days with work. - Do not count days for learning lines, days without a fixed date or hold days. - In an account without subaccounts, you can enter `ACCOUNT_QTY`. In an account with subaccounts, enter `SUBACCOUNT_QTY("1")` or the number. If the subaccounts are the phases of one person and budgeted in days, enter their sum: `SUBACCOUNT_QTY("1")+SUBACCOUNT_QTY("2")+SUBACCOUNT_QTY("3")`. In **FFA 2026 Gagen mit Phasen** the phases of the cast accounts 132 to 134 are lump sums, so enter the contract days there as a number. - For an engagement shorter than one week, enter `30`. Your payroll office decides whether unemployment insurance still applies.
For crew, an empty timebase means no cap. The budget is then on the safe side. Where a weekly wage is above 1,356.25 €, the weekly ceiling for health and care insurance, enter the calendar days instead. In an account budgeted in weeks that is `ACCOUNT_QTY * 7`. In the **FFA 2026** template every account budgeted in weeks already carries this formula. In **FFA 2026 Gagen mit Phasen** these accounts carry `(SUBACCOUNT_QTY("1")+SUBACCOUNT_QTY("2")+SUBACCOUNT_QTY("3")) * 7`, the weeks of all three phases, because there `ACCOUNT_QTY` reads only the account's own quantity, which is 0.
Open the **Supplements** tab in **Settings** and enter the premiums of the German film collective agreement (TV FFS). **Markup On Wage %** carries the premium, **Worktime %** how often you expect it.
| Supplement Name | Markup On Wage % | Worktime % | | --------------------------- | ---------------- | ---------- | | Overtime 11th hour | 125 | 10 | | Overtime from the 12th hour | 150 | 10 | | Overtime 51st to 55th hour | 125 | 10 | | Overtime from the 56th hour | 150 | 10 | | Night work 22:00 to 06:00 | 25 | 10 | | Saturday | 25 | 10 | | Sunday | 75 | 4 | | Public holiday | 100 | 4 |
Overtime carries 125 or 150 because the weekly wage covers 50 hours. Every hour beyond that is paid in full plus the premium. Night, Saturday, Sunday and holiday hours are already paid by the wage, so those rows carry the premium alone.
Do not tick the daily and the weekly overtime rows on the same account. The collective agreement does not count daily overtime again in the weekly hours, so ticking both pays it twice.
**Automatically add wage fringes to supplements** is not ticked in every account. Check it in each wage account, otherwise the social charges skip the premiums.
Apply them in the account the same way as the fringes, on the **Supplements** tab. The subaccount selection is separate from the fringes, so you can keep premiums on the shoot alone.
Holiday pay and the compensatory day off are wage that gets paid out. You budget both through the factor, not as a charge of their own. KOSMA calculates `Quantity × Price/Unit × X` per account.
| What | Value in the **X** column | What it produces | | --------------------------------------- | ------------------------- | ------------------------------- | | Holiday pay, 10 % under TV FFS | `1.10` | 10 % more wage in the account | | Compensatory day, one per 20 shoot days | `1.05` | 5 % more wage in the account | | both together | `1.155` | 15.5 % more wage in the account |
The **X** column takes a formula. In a formula, write decimals with a point, because a comma separates the arguments of a function. A cell that holds only a number also takes a comma: type `1,10` and KOSMA stores `1.10`.
Every social charge then follows on its own, because it calculates on the account total. The reverse holds too: if the holiday pay is not in the wage, the charges on it are missing.
The compensatory day is earned on shoot days only. If the account has subaccounts such as Prep, Shoot and Wrap, enter `1.05` in the shoot subaccount alone. If it has none, the factor covers the whole engagement. Convert it to the shoot weeks, or budget the compensatory day as an extra shoot day in the quantity.
Holiday pay can also be a wage supplement, with a 10 % markup and 100 % of work time. Take that route when the money has to appear in its own account of the German FFA scheme. Through the X column that account stays empty.
In the same dialog, choose **Save as Preset** under **Select preset...**, enter a name and click **Ok**. In every other wage account, choose the preset under **Fringe Presets** in the account details. See [save and reuse a fringe preset](/kb/article/save-and-reuse-a-fringe-preset).
Both FFA 2026 templates already contain the presets `DE 2026 Angestellte` and `DE 2026 Selbständige`.
The preset does not contain the timebase. After you apply it to an actor's account, open **Fringes & Supplements** and enter the days again. An empty timebase, or `0`, means no cap.
The preset only ticks subaccounts that have the same names as in the account you saved it from.
An actress works 4 shoot days at 2,500 € each, 10,000 € in total. With rehearsals and a fitting she has 8 contract days in a row, so the timebase is `8`.
| Fringe | Without timebase | Timebase 8 | | ---------------------- | ---------------- | ---------- | | Health insurance | 875.00 € | 135.60 € | | Care insurance | 180.00 € | 27.92 € | | Pension insurance | 930.00 € | 209.60 € | | Unemployment insurance | 130.00 € | 29.28 € | | Total | 2,115.00 € | 402.40 € |
A line producer, 4 weeks at 2,500 € = 10,000 € of wage. With the factor `1.10` for holiday pay the account carries 11,000 €, and every fringe calculates on those 11,000 €. The timebase is `ACCOUNT_QTY * 7`, which is 28 calendar days.
| Fringe | No timebase | KOSMA, 28 days | Payroll office | | ---------------------- | ----------- | -------------- | -------------- | | Health insurance | 962.50 € | 474.60 € | 474.69 € | | Care insurance | 198.00 € | 97.72 € | 97.65 € | | Pension insurance | 1,023.00 € | 733.60 € | 733.46 € | | Unemployment insurance | 143.00 € | 102.48 € | 102.53 € | | Levy U1 | 165.00 € | 118.44 € | 118.30 € | | Levy U2 | 42.90 € | 30.80 € | 30.76 € | | Levy U3 | 16.50 € | 11.76 € | 11.83 € | | Employers' liability | 88.00 € | 88.00 € | 88.00 € | | Pension fund | 440.00 € | 315.56 € | 338.00 € | | Total | 3,078.90 € | 1,972.96 € | 1,995.22 € |
The payroll office prorates the monthly ceiling. For health and care insurance that is 5,812.50 € ÷ 30 × 28 = 5,425.00 €. For the rest it is 8,450 € ÷ 30 × 28 = 7,886.67 €. KOSMA multiplies its day limit by the same 28 days.
Without the pension fund the two columns differ by 0.18 € in 1,657.22 €, which is 0.01 %. The difference comes from the day limits, which are rounded to cents. A budget is accurate enough at that level. What the payroll office calculates is what gets paid.
For the pension fund the agreement takes the full monthly ceiling, even when the engagement covers only 28 days of one calendar month: 4 % of 8,450 € is 338.00 €. KOSMA caps per day and arrives at 315.56 €. If the engagement spans two calendar months, the ceiling applies in each month, and the payroll office pays the full 440.00 €.
You do not need to do this. We have worked it through for you; it only shows that the figures are right. If you want to see it for yourself, compare the group with a health insurance fund's calculator. German health funds are public-law bodies, so their calculators carry the rates that payroll runs on.
In KOSMA, create an account at 9,000 EUR, apply the `DE 2026` group, and enter `30` under **Timebase (days) for fringe limits**, a full payroll month. Put the same case into AOK's salary calculator, **Arbeitgeber** tab: 9,000 EUR gross, monthly period, place of work Berlin West, contribution groups 1/1/1/1, **Umlagen berechnen** ticked.
Four contributions carry a nationwide rate. KOSMA has to hit the fund's figure there:
| Fringe | KOSMA, 30 days | AOK Nordost | | ------------------------ | ---------------- | ---------------- | | Pension insurance | 786.00 EUR | 785.85 EUR | | Unemployment insurance | 109.80 EUR | 109.85 EUR | | Long-term care insurance | 104.70 EUR | 104.63 EUR | | Insolvency levy | 12.60 EUR | 12.68 EUR | | **Total** | **1,013.10 EUR** | **1,013.01 EUR** |
Nine cents on a thousand euros, and they come from KOSMA working off day limits rounded to the cent.
Three contributions each fund sets for itself:
| Fringe | KOSMA, 30 days | AOK Nordost | why | | ---------------- | -------------- | ----------- | ------------------------------------ | | Health insurance | 508.50 EUR | 526.03 EUR | supplementary rate 2.90 % not 3.50 % | | Levy U1 | 126.90 EUR | 211.25 EUR | reimbursement level, here 65 % | | Levy U2 | 33.00 EUR | 39.72 EUR | the fund's own rate |
The group's 8.75 % is 7.3 % plus half of the *average* supplementary rate of 2.9 %. AOK Nordost charges 3.5 %, so 9.05 %. Enter your own fund's supplementary rate and this row matches too.
The pension fund and the employers' liability insurance appear in no fund's calculator. Check those two rows against the collective agreement and your assessment notice; the calculations are in step 2 above.
**If a fringe is lower than its rate.** A subaccount has no tick under **Apply to subaccounts**, so its wage is not part of the base. A new subaccount always starts without a tick. Open **Fringes & Supplements**, tick the subaccount and click **Ok**. Each fringe then shows its rate of the whole wage.
**If an actor's charges are not capped.** The account has no timebase, or the timebase is `0`. This happens after a preset, or when `ACCOUNT_QTY` is used in an account with subaccounts. Enter the contract days as a number, as `SUBACCOUNT_QTY("1")` or, for the phases of one person budgeted in days, as the sum of the three subaccounts. The fringe rows then show the capped amounts.
**Sources.** - Contribution rates and ceilings 2026: GKV-Spitzenverband, and the Social Security Calculation Values Ordinance 2026 (Sozialversicherungs-Rechengrößenverordnung 2026). - Cross-check of the contributions: AOK, employer's salary calculator 2026. - Contribution formula, risk class and contribution rate of the employers' liability insurance: BG ETEM, risk tariff 2021, tariff positions 1311 and 1312, contribution rate of May 2026. - Artists' social insurance levy of 4.9 % in 2026: BMAS, Künstlersozialabgabe-Verordnung 2026. - Contract days for actors: meeting of the social insurance carriers of 21 November 2018. - Holiday, overtime, night, weekend and holiday premiums, and the compensatory day off: TV FFS of 12 October 2024, items 5, 6 and 14. It is in force since 1 January 2025 and grants half a holiday day per seven days of contract. - Employer contribution of 4 % to the pension fund: TV bAV of 4 June 2025, § 3. It only applies when the person converts 4 % of their own pay, and runs up to the pension insurance contribution ceiling (§ 3 (5)).
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