Pfändungsfreigrenze 2026: the threshold for your net pay
If your net pay is below the Pfändungsfreigrenze, your employer may not pass anything to the creditor. Find the threshold for your number of dependants and your pay period.
Monthly exemption limit
€1,590
Your net pay is €210 above it: €148.82 is attachable.
| Weekly limit | €367.50 |
| Daily limit | €73.50 |
| Exempt basic amount per month | €1,587.40 |
| Until 30 June 2026 | €1,560 |
The limit is the lower bound of the first table row with an attachable amount; below it you keep all of your net pay.
Prepared by Radif Partners · How we calculate · 2026 table (Federal Law Gazette 2026 I No. 80) and ZPO checked on 28 October 2026
The Pfändungsfreigrenze, or exemption limit, is the net pay from which anything at all can be taken from your wages in Germany. Since 1 July 2026 it is €1,590 a month if you support nobody by law, so up to €1,589.99 net you keep everything. With one dependant the limit rises to €2,190, with two to €2,520, with three to €2,860, with four to €3,190 and with five or more to €3,520. For weekly pay, garnishment starts at €367.50 without dependants, for daily pay at €73.50. One point worth knowing: crossing the limit does not cost you the whole excess. In the first attachable row, with no dependants, the creditor gets just €1.82. These values apply until 30 June 2027 and come from the official 2026 exemption-limit notice.
The thresholds at a glance
The limit is not written into the statute as a separate figure. It follows from the official table: it is the lower edge of the first row that shows an amount in your column. We therefore read it straight off our calculation, which we checked against the 2026 notice. The table gives the thresholds for all three pay periods.
| Dependants | Month | Week | Day | Month until June 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | €1,590 | €367.50 | €73.50 | €1,560 |
| 1 | €2,190 | €505 | €101 | €2,150 |
| 2 | €2,520 | €580 | €116 | €2,470 |
| 3 | €2,860 | €657.50 | €131.50 | €2,800 |
| 4 | €3,190 | €735 | €147 | €3,120 |
| 5 or more | €3,520 | €810 | €162 | €3,450 |
Each person you support under a legal duty pushes the threshold up. The first step is the largest, because under section 850c(2) ZPO the first dependant raises the allowance by €597.42; each further one up to the fifth adds €332.83. The fifth column also covers six or more people. Each threshold sits just above the allowance, with one person at €2,190 rather than €2,184.82, because net pay is first rounded down to steps of €10.
Your column depends on the people who actually count. If the enforcement court leaves out a person with income of their own entirely under section 850c(6) ZPO, you move one column to the left: with a single dependant, the limit then drops from €2,190 to €1,590. If the person is to count only partly, the order states its own amount, because a plain reference to the table is no longer enough in that case.
What happens just above the limit
The limit is not a cliff edge. If you exceed it by a few euros, you give up only a small share of them, because the garnishment applies the tenths to the part above the allowance. With no dependants, €1.82 is attachable in the first row and €7 more in each row after that. A pay rise therefore always leaves you better off: of each extra euro you keep three tenths with no dependants and half with one.
The comparison uses your attachable net pay, not the amount paid out. Tax and social contributions are already gone; half of any overtime pay, a customary holiday bonus and a Christmas bonus up to €795 are left out. Someone whose payout sits just above the limit may fall below it once the correct net figure is used. The steps are under working out attachable income.
Attachable with your dependants
Attachable with your dependants
€107.59
| Difference made by the dependants | €461.23 |
| Allowance | €2,184.82 |
Week, day and the July switch
If you are paid weekly or daily, compare your pay with the threshold for that period, not with a monthly figure converted by hand. The steps there are €2.50 and €0.50 wide. Examples for casual and day workers are under weekly and daily pay.
The limits change every 1 July. Until the end of June 2026, garnishment without dependants began at €1,560; anyone just above that in June whose net pay stayed the same dropped out of garnishment in July. The rules on who counts as a dependant are under dependants and garnishment. Bank accounts have a limit of their own under section 899 ZPO, explained under P-account allowance.