Lakshya raj khatri
Eugenio Pescimoro
PROLOY TARAN DAS
MC Salary not enough for Boston
7 Comments
Hi Borja, thank you for your reply. When you fixed your salary problem, how much were you getting? I checked that my gross salary agrees with the grant agreement, but tax is somehow too large, around 60%. What was your gross salary and what was your net salary?
Thanks.
Hello Javier,
I have also a Global fellowship and my outgoing phase was in USA (Washington DC). I had a similar problem. Even I was able to opt out the university pension system, the check was still shorter that I had expected. The problem, they found out, was that my university contracted me within their own salary scheme (at the appropriate category), which resulted in a much lower salary than shown in the grant agreement. They fixed that and I got a big pay back, but that was almost 2 years after I started. So, you could start by checking this issue in your contract. I am sure more experienced people here can help you with that. Hope you find a solution.
Hello Javier,
- Are you paying tax, pension and health insurance in Germany or the USA? This depends on where you are resident for tax purposes. It sounds like you are paid in Germany and taxed at the rate for a single person. See below.
- Are you registered as living at an address in Germany? If you previously lived in Germany, have you deregistered (Abmeldung)?
- You could contact the German NCP/EURAXESS for the MSCA and see what they say. If it is to do with administration of the contract, they can sometimes be of help. Often international tax issues are so personal and complicated that they are reluctant to get too involved beyond vague statements. This is closely related to German Law: it is illegal to give tax advice if you are not qualified to do so by passing the exam to become a tax advisor.
- I know someone who had a similar problem and worked through a tax accountant/advisor to get a good solution. He is on holidays at the moment so I will send him an email and see if he can send you the details.
I used this salary calculator to see if I could reproduce your salary figures. The only way to get it anywhere close was to include tax class 1 (for single people), church tax and VBL pension contributions. VBL pension contributions are not strictly required for MSCA Fellows but would be the default for most German University employees. Indeed, the model contract for German-hosted Global Fellows says that you shouldn't pay into VBL: http://www.kowi.de/en/Portaldata/2/Resources/Horizon2020/MSCA/English-Reading-Version-MSC-IF-GF.docx
Warm regards,
Brian
Hello Brian, thank you for your reply. I am paying tax in Germany, I do not think my German university gives me any other option. Please let me know what kind of solution your colleague found.
Thanks.
Hi Javier, I guess your residency should be changed to US for the 2 years of the outgoing phase of the Global Fellowship, since your gross salary has been changed accordingly depending on the costs of living in this country. Then, I guess you have to pay taxes, pension etc. in US.
Did you have an option to choose residency and tax scheme? In US or Germany?
I'm going to apply this year for a Global Fellowship with beneficiary institute in Switzerland and partner institute in US. The country coefficient for Switzerland is 1.131 and for US 0.994. The host beneficiary institute only is receiving the whole grant and distributes it accordingly. Isn't it?
Best regards, Theodota
Hi Javier,
This link might be useful for you: https://cogtales.wordpress.com/2017/03/28/moving-to-us-postdoc-marie-sklodowska-curie-global-fellow/
Best of luck!
gerrit
Hello Javier,
I have also a Global fellowship and my outgoing phase was in USA (Washington DC). I had a similar problem. Even I was able to opt out the university pension system, the check was still shorter that I had expected. The problem, they found out, was that my university contracted me within their own salary scheme (at the appropriate category), which resulted in a much lower salary than shown in the grant agreement. They fixed that and I got a big pay back, but that was almost 2 years after I started. So, you could start by checking this issue in your contract. I am sure more experienced people here can help you with that. Hope you find a solution.