👶 Parental allowance for self-employed people

As a self-employed person you are also entitled to parental allowance (Elterngeld) – but the calculation follows its own rules and is often initially only provisional.

Parental allowance (Elterngeld) § 2b BEEG § 2d BEEG § 8 BEEG Maternity allowance (Mutterschaftsgeld) § 24i SGB V Maternity Protection Act (Mutterschutzgesetz)

In brief

As a self-employed person you are also entitled to parental allowance (Elterngeld) under the Bundeselterngeld- und Elternzeitgesetz (BEEG) – but the calculation follows its own rules. As a rule, what counts is not, as for employees, income in the last twelve months before the birth, but the profit from the last completed tax assessment period before that. The Mutterschutzgesetz (Maternity Protection Act) and maternity allowance (Mutterschaftsgeld) under § 24i SGB V do not in principle apply to you, as both are tied to an employment relationship.

Step by step

Submit the applicationSubmit the parental allowance application to the responsible parental allowance office (Elterngeldstelle) and state your self-employed activity.
Prove your profit incomePresent the profit income for the relevant assessment period – as a rule the last completed tax assessment period before the birth (§ 2b para. 2 BEEG).
Accept the provisional decisionIf the final income tax assessment notice is not yet available, a provisional decision is made on the basis of provisional information (§ 8 para. 3 BEEG).
Wait for the final decisionAfter receiving the final income tax assessment notice, the authority continues the procedure of its own motion and makes a final decision (§ 8 BEEG) – a back payment or a repayment demand is possible.
Submit a profit statementThe profit statement must meet at least the requirements of an income surplus statement under § 4 para. 3 EStG; business expenses are applied as a flat rate of 25% or, on application, at their actual amount (§ 2d BEEG).
Apply for a shift (special cases)If the reference year is atypically low for reasons exhaustively listed in the law, you can apply for a shift of the assessment period (§ 2b para. 1 sentences 2 and 4 BEEG).

Deadlines

last completed assessment period

Relevant assessment period for profit from self-employment§ 2b para. 2 BEEG

if no tax notice: provisional

Provisional decision if the income tax assessment notice is not yet available when applying§ 8 para. 3 BEEG

after the tax notice is submitted

Final decision of the authority's own motion, no fixed processing period stated in the law§ 8 BEEG

Watch out – common mistakes

The assessment period is often confused: unlike for employees, what counts for self-employed people is not the last calendar year but the last completed tax assessment year – for a birth shortly after the turn of the year that can be one year further back than expected.
The provisional reservation is often overlooked: the first notice is usually not final, after the tax notice a recalculation usually follows – also to your disadvantage.
The business expense flat rate of 25% is accepted automatically, although on application the actual business expenses could be more favourable (or vice versa).
An entitlement to maternity allowance under § 24i SGB V is wrongly assumed, although it comes into question only with an actually existing entitlement to sickness benefit (e.g. via an optional tariff).
An application for a shift under § 2b BEEG is not made, although the reference year was atypically low due to special effects – observe the law's exhaustive list of grounds, not every reason counts.

In depth · legal basis, figures and practice – for advisers and professionals

Calculation of parental allowance

The assessment base is the monthly average of the sum of positive profit income according to the income tax assessment notice, reduced by taxes and social contributions (§ 2d BEEG). For mixed income from employment and self-employment, a de minimis threshold of around €35 per month mentioned in secondary sources applies, below which only the employee income is taken as the basis – this amount was not verified against the full text of § 2b BEEG in the underlying research and should be cross-checked before a binding statement is made.

Provisional versus final

The provisional approval (§ 8 para. 3 BEEG) is an independent administrative act that can be challenged in isolation (confirmed by case law of the Bundessozialgericht). After the final tax notice is submitted, a recalculation is made of the authority's own motion; the authority is not bound by the provisional amount – both back payments and repayment demands are possible.

Maternity protection and maternity allowance for self-employed people

§ 1 MuSchG ties its scope to an employment relationship or equivalent groups – purely self-employed people without such a link do not in principle fall under it. § 24i SGB V ties the entitlement to maternity allowance to an existing entitlement to sickness benefit. Voluntarily insured self-employed people with a sickness benefit optional tariff and an actually existing entitlement to sickness benefit can therefore in principle also claim maternity allowance – this link is plausible in terms of legal systematics, but was not confirmed by an explicit individual-case source or case law on self-employed people with optional tariffs and should be clarified in the individual case with the health insurance fund.

Who is responsible

Parental allowance offices of the Länder or municipalities (organised differently in each federal state)
Responsible health insurance fund (maternity allowance under § 24i SGB V, where an entitlement exists)
Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (guidelines on the BEEG)

Quick questions

Worum geht es bei „Parental allowance for self-employed people“?

As a self-employed person you are also entitled to parental allowance (Elterngeld) – but the calculation follows its own rules and is often initially only provisional.

Which deadlines and figures matter?

last completed assessment period: Relevant assessment period for profit from self-employment (§ 2b para. 2 BEEG)
if no tax notice: provisional: Provisional decision if the income tax assessment notice is not yet available when applying (§ 8 para. 3 BEEG)
after the tax notice is submitted: Final decision of the authority's own motion, no fixed processing period stated in the law (§ 8 BEEG)

What should I do first?

Submit the application: Submit the parental allowance application to the responsible parental allowance office (Elterngeldstelle) and state your self-employed activity.
Prove your profit income: Present the profit income for the relevant assessment period – as a rule the last completed tax assessment period before the birth (§ 2b para. 2 BEEG).
Accept the provisional decision: If the final income tax assessment notice is not yet available, a provisional decision is made on the basis of provisional information (§ 8 para. 3 BEEG).

What do I need to watch out for?

The assessment period is often confused: unlike for employees, what counts for self-employed people is not the last calendar year but the last completed tax assessment year – for a birth shortly after the turn of the year that can be one year further back than expected.
The provisional reservation is often overlooked: the first notice is usually not final, after the tax notice a recalculation usually follows – also to your disadvantage.
The business expense flat rate of 25% is accepted automatically, although on application the actual business expenses could be more favourable (or vice versa).

Evidence

§ 2b BEEG, gesetze-im-internet.de/beeg, retrieved September 2026.
§ 2d BEEG, gesetze-im-internet.de/beeg, retrieved September 2026.
§ 8 BEEG, gesetze-im-internet.de/beeg – existence and basic mechanism confirmed, full text partly accessed via a secondary source, cross-read the original wording before publication.
§ 24i SGB V, gesetze-im-internet.de/sgb_5, retrieved September 2026.
§ 1 Mutterschutzgesetz (MuSchG 2018), gesetze-im-internet.de/muschg_2018, retrieved September 2026.
Bundessozialgericht, judgment of 27 October 2022, B 10 EG 4/20 R, bsg.bund.de – on the independence of provisional approvals.
De minimis threshold for mixed income (§ 2b BEEG) and three-month retroactivity rule for the application – not conclusively verified against the statutory text, see Sources and methodology.

As of

As of: September 2026 · Sources and method

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