Methodology — Germany

Two engines, one shared input shape.

The Germany state-fee calculator encodes the Gerichtskostengesetz (GKG) — § 34 + KV GKG + Anlage 2 — and the Familiengerichtskostengesetz (FamGKG) — § 28 + § 43 + KV FamGKG — in the consolidated form post KostBRÄG 2025 (BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 109, in force 1 June 2025). The amendment raised every 1,0-Gebühr in the Anlage 2 table by ~6 % (the base band now starts at 40,00 €, up from 38,00 €). Adjacent statutes — GNotKG (notarial / registry / probate), GvKostG (Gerichtsvollzieher / bailiff), JVKostG (judicial administration) — are out of scope; no current case type reaches them.

The lawyer-fee side encodes the RVG. Germany is the outlier in Tarifo’s roster: under § 49b Abs. 1 BRAO, undercutting the RVG amounts in in-court representation is unzulässig — the statutory tariff is a binding minimumA tariff floor a court could once not go below. Several EU jurisdictions abandoned binding minimums after CJEU rulings; where that has happened, the same figures now serve only as reference values.Glossary →, not a reference valueA tariff figure that is advisory, not mandatory — a guide to what a fee customarily is, which the lawyer and client remain free to depart from. Every number Tarifo shows is a reference value.Glossary →. Written upward agreements are permitted (§ 3a RVG); downward agreements only for out-of-court work (§ 4 RVG). The calculator reflects this: litigation case types are framed as the statutory minimum, while consumer-cap items (Erstberatung 190 € net, Beratung 250 € net under § 34 RVG) and the Geschäftsgebühr range (Nr. 2300 VV RVG, 0,5–2,5) are framed as a range / cap.

State court fees fall into four shapes.

GKG multiplier × value table

The dominant shape. The court 1,0-Gebühr is read from Anlage 2 GKG by StreitwertThe value in dispute under Austrian and German law — the figure the fee scale is read against. Equivalent to material interest.Glossary → bis X €, then multiplied by the KV factor: civil first instance 3,0 (Nr. 1210), civil appeal 4,0 (Nr. 1220), labour first instance 2,0 (Nr. 8210), administrative 3,0 (Nr. 5110). Above 500.000 € the table extends arithmetically per § 34 Abs. 1 GKG; minimum fee 15 € (§ 34 Abs. 2).

FamGKG divorce

Nr. 1110 KV FamGKG, 2,0 of the FamGKG 1,0-Gebühr (same Anlage 2 table as GKG, per § 28 FamGKG). The Verfahrenswert is clamp(3 × monthly_net_income_combined + Σ Folgesachen, 3.000, 1.000.000) under § 43 Abs. 1 FamGKG; Versorgungsausgleich adds 10 % per Anrecht (§ 50 Abs. 1), Unterhalt adds 12 × monthly (§ 51 Abs. 1).

Auffangwert default

For administrative_court the Streitwert defaults to 5.000 € (§ 52 Abs. 2 GKG) when no monetary value can be derived. The fee is then 3,0 × gkgAnlage2(5.000) = 511,50 €.

No state fee

Out-of-court representation (Geschäftsgebühr, Nr. 2300 VV RVG), first consultation (§ 34 RVG), Beratung / Gutachten, and standalone Einigung carry no court fee at all — no court is seized. The calculator returns null for those case types and the UI hides the state-fee block.

State fees: 0 % USt. Lawyer fees: optional 19 % toggle.

State court fees in Germany are not subject to Umsatzsteuer. The calculator displays them at face value with no USt line and never applies the 19 % toggle from the lawyer-fee side. Lawyer fees are USt-applicable (Nr. 7008 VV RVG); the USt is added on top of the net base — it is not included in the Anlage 2 1,0-Gebühr — and the result panel exposes a toggle on the lawyer-fee number only. Flipping it has no effect on the state-fee output.

A civil first-instance claim at 5.000 € Streitwert.

Take a standard civil first-instance claim with a Streitwert of 5.000 € (civil_claim_first_instance):

The same case at the appeal stage applies Nr. 1220 (×4,0) and yields 682,00 €. With outcome = “early_termination” (withdrawal, acknowledgement, or settlement before judgment) Nr. 1211 drops the factor to 1,0, yielding 170,50 €. These three figures are pinned in the engine’s unit tests as fixtures S4, S10 and S23.

The lawyer fee on that same 5.000 € claim runs off the separate RVG value table (Anlage 2 RVG, base 51,50 €), where the 1,0-Gebühr at 5.000 € is 354,50 €. A contested first instance with an oral hearing earns two factors — the Verfahrensgebühr (Nr. 3100 VV RVG, 1,3 → 460,85 €) plus the Terminsgebühr (Nr. 3104 VV RVG, 1,2 → 425,40 €) — a combined 2,5 Satz = 886,25 € net, with the Auslagenpauschale (Nr. 7002) and 19 % USt (Nr. 7008) added on top. Because this is in-court representation, that amount is a binding statutory minimum under § 49b Abs. 1 BRAO: a written agreement (§ 3a RVG) may raise it but may not undercut it. On early termination without a hearing the Nr. 3104 Terminsgebühr drops away and only the 1,3 Verfahrensgebühr remains.

Where the two engines disagree on purpose.

Germany has four intentional divergences between the state-fee engine and a naive carry-over from the lawyer-fee side:

A separate category is purely no-fee: out_of_court_representation, first_consultation, advice_or_opinion, and settlement carry no court fee because no court is seized. The existence of a lawyer fee (Geschäftsgebühr, Erstberatung, Einigungsgebühr) does not imply a court fee — the calculator surfaces a note naming the governing RVG provision for each.