| I concur with parent. Health insurance: if you're freelance, your health insurance is preferably private (cheaper) and you're free to cancel it if you please. Capital gains: is for speculations, can choose to "be a saver not a gambler". Church tax: is for church members, don't join. Gewerbesteuer: is for LLC/Ltd/GmbH/UG etc --- not for freelancers/Freiberufler Pflege: never joined that in my whole life. Seems to be optional then. Rundfunk: this becomes an issue when you register as a resident or fail to deregister as a resident. Now, not being registered as a resident while residing qualifies as "offense"/"misdemeanor" (Ordnungswidrigkeit), not as a crime, last I checked =) (I registered though, when I moved back here after years abroad. Though in retrospect, I have no idea why I did --- for someone who never makes it to the voting booth, all it gives you is GEZ hassles.) |
No, having health insurance has been mandatory in Germany since 2007. You're free to switch providers, or go from private to public insurance, but you can't just cancel it and go without insurance.