Sort out the consequences for past and future
Two questions remain after the decision: what happens to contributions for past years, and what changes going forward. Even confirmed self-employment does not always mean freedom from pension contributions.
✓ Verified: 11/08/2026
WHAT TO DO
› Details and tips
The contribution demand goes to the client, not to you, and often arrives with the audit decision. That is exactly why many clients end the cooperation at this stage — agree in advance how you both handle such a decision.
One sentence that saves years: pension insurance liability under Section 2 SGB VI is tested separately from the status. Most people learn of it when the demand arrives, not when they start out.
Useful Tools
- Verbraucherzentrale Legal
Consumer protection centres.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How many years of contributions can be demanded? ▾
Claims to contributions become time barred four years after the end of the calendar year in which they fell due. For contributions intentionally withheld the period is thirty years.
What is the late payment surcharge and can it be avoided? ▾
A surcharge of one per cent for each month of delay begun, calculated on the arrears rounded down to 50 euro. Where the claim is established retroactively by decision, the surcharge is not levied insofar as the debtor credibly shows they were unaware of the duty to pay through no fault of their own.
May the client deduct my contribution share from future payments? ▾
The employer can claim the employee share only by deduction from wages, and catch up a missed deduction only on the next three pay runs. Later only if the deduction was missed through no fault of theirs.
Self-employment confirmed — so no contributions? ▾
Not necessarily. Certain groups of self-employed people are covered by pension insurance by law, including those who employ no insured staff and permanently work essentially for a single client. That is a separate test, not a consequence of the status.
What stops the procedure from happening again? ▾
Bring contract and practice into line: several clients, own equipment, freedom over your own hours. If the work is objectively built like employment, an employment contract is more honest than a dispute every two years.