Starshollow

While a freelancer coming from outside the EU (and so far, UK is still a part of it :-) ) will indeed often face problems to get into a German health insurance (public insurance not being an option for lack of prior coverage in an EU-memberstate's national health system and German private health insurance very hesitant to accept that kind of risk), some like your hubby coming from the UK has had, indeed, three good options to chose from: 1) entering German public health insurance with for-free-coverage of dependent spouse and children. Has to be done, though, within the first three months upon moving to Germany 2) entering German private health insurance. While a large number of them are hesitant or even hostile to taking on self-employed new arrivals in Germany, experts like John Gunn (see above) and us do know those who will accept someone like your husband in, provided he has a viable business model and can show proof of some halfway decent income from past and good forecast for the future 3) there are also special health insurance plans for self-employed from German-based health insurance companies (check the group-plan you can find here at the "Association of self-employed Expats in Germany" www.aseig.de ) which also come with the compulsory long-term nursing care insurance. And last but not least, there is at least one international health insurance company that offers a connected deal with a German health insurance company to sign up for the Pflegepflichtversicherung.   So, all in all, without knowing who advised you here to sign up with ALC (and yes, ALC or rather their underwriter are listed by BAFIN in Germany but the vast majority of German private health insurances will tell you that they do not recognize them as legally compliant under German laws for anyone who needs to have a substitutive private health insurance in accordance with Sec. 193 Subsec. 3 of the VVG) but in my professional opinion it is/was not the best advice for you guys if those options above were omitted.   Cheerio  

did you check the directory here on Toytown? I work with and for a large number of US-nationals here in Germany as a financial advisor (both for insurance needs and investments) and many of them are very happy with the tax advice provided by this company here:https://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/topic/341054-intertax-consult/ While he is not actively advertising it, he is an experienced specialist on US-taxation matters.   Cheerio    

    So, all in all it seems that you have not to worry about being forced to pay for something. Your mother needs to worry indeed. And the natural daughter of that man, too. If she is really unable financially to contribute is not for her to say but will depend on an income and financial asset evaluation by the responsible authorities.   Cheerio  

please check the following website for more info: www.aseig.de   Cheerio

there is no difference in the monthly costs, regardless of who pays.   Cheerio  

  This is extremely interesting - thank you. Common lore - and also a large number of info, threads and even essays about this topic point out that due to the German-US bilateral social security agreement no such refunds can be made. thanks for correcting this and giving a real-life example. That is going to help a lot of people!!!!   Cheerio  

if your gross salary is below the legal threshold (Jahresarbeitsentgeltgrenze is the word, or JAEG for short - remember that word for your next game of Scrabble, big points :-)   ) you are a voluntary member of the public health insurance. In which case it can be often an option that, just like with private health insurance, you'll receive the co-pay tax free from your employer on top of your gross salary and you'll pay the monthly contributions yourself.   Guess that's what happened here. Right ?   Cheerio  

When in doubt - check out the tax advisors who advertise for many years on Toytown and have countless references from real clients/members here on Toytown. You can find them listed here:https://www.toytowngermany.com/archive/business_directory.html or with single adds on top of the topics here in the Finance forum. That way you know these guys are for real and can read references from real members that you can even send PMs if you want some personal/individual feedback. How does that sound?   Oh, and you can find insurance brokers and financial advisors that way, too :-) Cheerio  

Outstanding, as always, dear @PandaMunich  !  Thanks on behalf of everyone...   Cheerio  

@kapil354  - you kind of saddled the horse the wrong way, I am afraid.    Because your questions 1 and 2 will solicit totally different answers without looking at question3 first, which obviously is your main reason to ask.    So, let me begin with 3 and then answer the other two after that in correlation with 3. Fair enough ?   3. Naturalization: when applying for a permanent residence permit /Niederlassungserlaubnis (NLE), depending on age and professional status (self-employed vs employee) the immigration offices/Ausländeramt often require you to show proof of sufficient financial provision for retirement. Easiest proof is if you have 60+ months contributions into German public pension already when applying - requirement fulfilled, case closed. That is typically the case for employees after 5 years of living&working in Germany and many artists who are with the Künstlersozialkasse (KSK), because the latter always includes contributing to the public pension. WARNING: if you have an artist-like job and have lived already for some years in Germany, you may have been remiss in not joining the KSK. If found out/audited, you could be back-charged for a public pension for up to 5 years (~19% of your gross income per year). At the same time, if you now have ample financial means, it is the only way to set up public pension backward, though artists have a nice loophole here thru applying with KSK.   If you have not or could not contribute to the public pension in the past or for sufficient enough time (<60 months), you can substitute the public pension with a private pension plan. And here it becomes a bit convoluted... because virtually every Ausländeramt in Germany has different rules as to what they'll accept as a substitute.  The range goes from " simple pension plan with no guarantees for up to 100.000 EUR capital when you reach age 67" in Munich to "only RÜRUP pension plans with a capital of exactly 175.068 EUR guaranteed when you reach age 67"  in Berlin and many variations inbetween.   Therefore, as you can see from this explanation, the answer to your question 2. pretty much depends on where you live right now or rather at which Ausländeramt you want to apply for the NLE?   The answer to 1. is then fairly simple: you don't need to pay into the plan backwards. All it takes is setting up such a pension plan 3-6 months before you want to apply for the NLE and start paying in, as long as the plan shows that by continuing to paying into the plan until age 67 you'll reach the critical requirement amount set by the responsible Ausländeramt. Theoretically you could take a brand new plan to the Amt, but in my long experience with this, the acceptance of such a plan is widely improved from the point of view from the Amt if it shows that you have been dilligently paying at least for some months already into such a plan.    I would strongly advise you to get yourself a financial advisor/independent broker specialized on Expats to assist you with finding the right plan for you and your local AMT. Several of them are advertising here on Toytown and have a proven track-record that you can check out, take your pick.   Cheerio  

@karlafernandes just two little hints upfront, since you are new here and all:   1. it is frowned upon here on Toytown if you do multiple postings of the same stuff/question as you just did three times. Not a good idea and not good neticette... 2. use the search function here on Toytown. There are tons of info, especially from @PandaMunich about that, including - if I recall correctly - a WIKI for self-employed Expats about this.   Only if you are really certain that your research on Toytown has not lead you to a good-enough answer to be found here, ask for more specific advice. Ok ?   Toytowners are a friendly and really helpful crowd, but they don't encourage freeriding or lack of effort. Great offer, btw, from your side to do such a PDF - once you found the info and WIKI here on Toytown, feel free to improve it and get a lot of browny points from the Toytown crowd :-)   Cheerio  

basically yes - the Ausländeramt Berlin has a rather complex calculation for what kind of pension capital you have to accrue privately til age 63 in order to allow for a statistical life expectancy of pension age 67 plus 12 years based on the income calculation for the Eckrentner....   Cheerio  

sorry about that... can you send me a PM, please, with your email address and clear name (as used on the contact form) and I will make sure you'll be contacted on Monday or Tuesday at the latest. We are currently a bit overrun by new clients wishing advice for  QROPS transfers, hence we are bit lagging behind right now in getting back to some new inquiries... Cheerio  

MIght not a SCHUFA report be better in such a case ?   Cheerio  

@cj780  : it is actually simpler than that... you only need to show proof that you have started such a RÜRUP pension plan when you file for your permanent residence permit, it is not required to have paid in for already 60 months (but it is required for you to continue paying into the plan later, too). Therefore you could basically set the pension plan up a month before you file for the NLE...though I would advise starting much earlier than that, it does look so much better for the AMT if you show some zeal regarding building up your compliant pension in Germany.   Cheerio