285. Ms. Frost works as a permanently employed staff member in an office. What does she not have to pay out of her salary?

Answer options

1. Value Added Tax (VAT)
2. Wage tax (withholding of income tax)
3. Contributions to unemployment insurance
4. Contributions to pension and health insurance

Explanation

As an employee, she is not a VAT taxpayer; VAT is an indirect consumption tax on supplies for which the taxable person is the entrepreneur (§ 13a UStG), while the economic burden falls on final consumers. By contrast, wage tax is withholding at source of individual income tax (§ 38 EStG), and the employee’s shares of unemployment, pension, and health insurance contributions are mandatorily withheld and remitted by the employer (SGB III, V, VI). This contribution-funded social insurance system derives from the Bismarckian model and is constitutionally grounded in the Basic Law’s social state principle (Art. 20(1) GG). In fiscal-constitutional terms, VAT is a shared tax under Art. 106 GG, but it is not a levy deducted from employment income.