KSK - Künstlersozialkasse (Artists' Social Insurance Fund)

What's the Künstlersozialkasse?

The Künstlersozialkasse (short: KSK; Artists' Social Insurance Fund) was founded in 1982 and is the contact point for health, pension and long-term care insurance for self-employed and freelance artists or publicists. The KSK provides social security and ensures that artists such as models, influencers or hosts can enjoy similar insurance protection to that which would normally be the case with employees. However, members of the KSK only have to pay half of the monthly contributions themselves. The rest is topped up for them by the KSK. This top-up is made up of  20% subsidy from the federal government and 30% social contributions from companies in the artistic field.

The company for which a model works must pay 4.2% of the net salary to the fund (Künstlersozialabgabe; Artists' Social Security Contribution). However, the exact monthly contribution a model has to pay depends on her income from work. Here low-income earners have to pay lower contributions, which are adjusted to the current income. For this adjustment members must submit an annual forecast. If the income is higher or lower than stated, there is no threat of an additional payment or a refund. However, if significantly more is earned than stated, an additional claim must be expected.

With the help of the Künstlersozialkasse the state would like to help the mentioned occupational groups above, which would otherwise be significantly worse protected and could not afford the high insurance premiums for a long term. Thus, in this case, models do not have to worry about their statutory social insurance, even if they do not have such high earnings over a certain period of time.

If you want to be included in the KSK, you have to submit a corresponding application. After that it will be checked whether the requirements for compulsory insurance under the KSVG (Künstlersozialversicherungsgesetz; Artists' Social Insurance Act) are fulfilled and the respective contributions are calculated individually. The applicant's lowest annual income must not fall below 3.900 euros in order for the KSK to cover the artist.

Further information and the registration form can be found here: https://www.kuenstlersozialkasse.de/index.php?id=15

Despite careful research, we are no experts in tax law. We therefore assume no responsibility for the accuracy, timeliness of data and completeness of the information provided. If you are interested, please contact the KSK directly or seek assistance from a tax advisor.