For artists and publicists insured with the KSK
KSK income estimate (Einkommensschätzung): Your year against the figure you reported.
Your running profit beside the income estimate (Einkommensschätzung) you reported — plus the deadlines of the KSK and the collecting societies, your invoices and, in an audit year, the four years the letter asks for.
Try it free for 30 days How it works
After the trial from €39 · No credit card · Servers in Germany · One-off payment, no subscription
How it works
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Enter or import
Type in income and expenses, or import them as CSV, in DATEV format, or once from Lexware Office or sevDesk.
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See the year beside the estimate
The gauge shows your profit so far beside the figure you reported (Einkommensschätzung) — in euro and percent, without a verdict.
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Hand it over, finished
For the audit letter and for your tax adviser, Künstlerfinanzen puts together the years that are asked for — to print or as CSV.
What the application does
Answer the audit letter
Per year, the figure from your tax assessment next to your own entries, laid out like the form to copy from. You sign and send it yourself.
Collecting societies at a glance
Record works and gigs for VG Wort, VG Bild-Kunst, GEMA and GVL, with the reporting deadlines the societies publish themselves. Whether anything is paid out is for the society to decide.
Invoices and VAT rate
Open, overdue and paid invoices — a paid invoice becomes an income entry. You choose the VAT rate of each entry yourself.
Record income and expenses
With date, amount, client and a description. You mark yourself which items belong to your artistic work.
Set them against the estimate
The gauge shows the running profit, your reported estimate as a mark and the difference in euro and percent. Plus a linear extrapolation to the full year — pure arithmetic, not a forecast.
Remind you of 1 December
An email with the lead time you set, and a note that a sample audit has the same deadline. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Several years on one page
Income, expenses and profit year by year, with totals per client — up to six years, as many as §13 KSVG allows the KSK to request. To print or as CSV.
Bring in your bookkeeping
Read CSV files and exports in DATEV format (Buchungsstapel) instead of typing everything again.
In German and English
The whole application is available in English too — for insured members who prefer to read English.
What Künstlerfinanzen does not do
- We classify nothing. Whether a particular activity or a particular client counts for the Künstlersozialkasse is a question of interpretation under §2 KSVG. You make that decision yourself, or your adviser does. The application calculates solely with the figures you enter.
- No legal or tax advice. Künstlerfinanzen records, totals and exports your own figures. The application gives no legal or tax advice and makes no recommendation.
- No report in your name. The report is made to the Künstlersozialkasse with your insurance number and the authentication code sent to you, via the Bundesportal with an ELSTER certificate or eID, or on the signed paper form. All three routes require your personal credentials. We supply the figure — you enter it yourself.
- No statement about your insurance obligation. Questions about whether you are required to be insured, and about exceptions, are answered by the Künstlersozialkasse or an adviser, not by this application.
Price
No subscription — each pass simply ends.
Final prices. No VAT is charged (small business, § 19 UStG).
Both are paid once and do not renew automatically — there is no subscription to cancel. 30 days free first. Afterwards, viewing, export and the deadline reminder stay free. One account, your data, servers in Germany. No set-up fee, no sales call.
The 30-day trial needs no credit card and no payment details.
What a Künstlersozialkasse audit asks for
The Künstlersozialkasse audits at least 5 % of its insured members every year by random sample. Those selected are told by post. The September 2026 letter asks for actual income from work for 2021 to 2024 and requires the tax assessments (Einkommensteuerbescheide) with it — by 1 December at the latest. The law (§13 KSVG) allows up to six years.
In an audit, the Künstlersozialkasse (KSK) asks for your actual income in past years, backed by your tax assessment (Einkommensteuerbescheid). Künstlerfinanzen puts your running profit next to the estimate you reported all year round — not only once the letter arrives.
The law (§13 KSVG) also allows the KSK to ask in which areas (Bereiche) you work as a self-employed artist or publicist and, in individual cases, the companies your income came from. As evidence, the Künstlersozialkasse names tax assessments, profit and loss statements and certificates of non-assessment (Nichtveranlagungsbescheinigungen). The legal basis is §13 KSVG and §5(1) of the KSVG-Beitragsüberwachungsverordnung.
Künstlerfinanzen puts together an overview for exactly this period — year by year, with income, business expenses, profit and the figure you reported at the time. As a printable page and as a CSV file that opens in a German spreadsheet program without an import dialog.
The deadline is 1 December — for the following year
§12(1), first sentence, KSVG: by 1 December of each year, insured members report their projected income from work for the following calendar year. The Künstlersozialkasse usually posts the Meldebogen in September.
A single figure is reported: projected business income minus business expenses. Not turnover. And the report is due even when nothing has changed since the previous year — the Künstlersozialkasse calls it „unbedingt erforderlich“ (absolutely necessary).
Künstlerfinanzen emails you beforehand, with the lead time you set. As soon as you record the report as filed, the reminder stops.
The estimate was too low — what now?
First of all: an estimate is an estimate. Jobs move, a good year was not foreseeable. The Künstlersozialkasse charges contributions during the year on the basis of the figure you reported, and by its own account does not correct them retroactively. A sample audit (Stichprobenprüfung) asks for the actual income per year, evidenced by the tax assessment (Einkommensteuerbescheid).
What follows from it depends on the individual case, and that is exactly the question Künstlerfinanzen does not answer. The application shows you the difference in euro and in percent, month by month and year by year. What you do with it is something to discuss with the Künstlersozialkasse or your adviser — the statute contains no threshold above which a deviation would have to be reported, and we do not invent one.
Two facts belong here. According to the Künstlersozialkasse, the reported estimate leads to binding monthly contributions that can no longer be corrected retroactively — „verbindlichen Monatsbeiträgen, die rückwirkend nicht mehr korrigiert werden können“. And for the current calendar year there is a form with which the estimate can be changed on application — more on that below. Whether you use it is your decision.
Correction during the current year
For the current calendar year, the Künstlersozialkasse has the form „Änderung der Einkommensschätzung“ (change of income estimate). Under §12(3) KSVG a change is taken into account on application (auf Antrag) from the first day of the month following the month in which the application reaches the Künstlersozialkasse.
„Auf Antrag“ means: you decide. The statute contains no threshold above which a deviation would have to be reported, and Künstlerfinanzen knows none either. The application shows you the difference in euro and in percent — what you make of it is up to you or your adviser.