Which WBS Band Your Berlin Household Lands In
A Wohnberechtigungsschein is not tested on your salary. The Wohnungsamt takes off the employee allowance, then up to three separate ten percent deductions, then any Freibetraege, and only compares what is left. Tell the ladder who is in your household and roughly what it earns before tax, and it draws your gross year as one column and marks where the remainder lands against all five Berlin bands.
The income limits come from the Berliner Mietratgeber published by the Senatsverwaltung fuer Stadtentwicklung, Bauen und Wohnen, built on section 9 of the Wohnraumfoerderungsgesetz and Berlin's own regulation raising that limit by up to 80 percent. The federal base is 12,000 euro for a single household, 18,000 for two people, 4,100 for each further household member and 500 more per child; Berlin issues WBS 100, 140, 160, 180 and a narrow 220 on top of it. The deduction rules are sections 23 and 24 of the same law, and the 1,230 euro employee allowance is section 9a of the Einkommensteuergesetz. The Senate's own WBS calculator was offline for rebuilding when this tool was checked on 14 September 2026. Your district Wohnungsamt makes the binding calculation; this is plain arithmetic, not legal advice.
Start with the household, because the limit moves with every person in it and a flatshare cannot apply as one. Then give the gross figure the household expects over the next twelve months and say how that money arrives, since a payslip carries all three ten percent deductions while freelance profit and a pension carry fewer. The last step is the allowance that fits, if any. The chart then shows your gross year as a single column, strips the allowance and the percentages off in visible layers, and draws the five Berlin lines across it so you can see which band the remainder sits under.
The tested income is not the gross income
The office starts with what the household expects to earn over the next twelve months, and Kindergeld is not counted at all. It then deducts the Werbungskosten allowance, which for anyone on a payslip is the 1,230 euro employee lump sum and is claimed once per earner, and up to three separate ten percent deductions for income tax, for compulsory health and care contributions and for compulsory pension contributions. A normal German contract carries all three, so thirty percent of the remainder disappears before any comparison happens.
Berlin issues five certificates, not one
WBS 100 is the federal limit exactly as written. Berlin is allowed to raise it by up to 80 percent, so WBS 140 adds 40 percent, WBS 160 adds 60 percent, WBS 180 adds 80 percent and a narrow WBS 220 adds 120 percent for a small slice of newer flats. Read as gross, a single employee clears WBS 180 on about 32,090 euro a year and two adults on payslips clear the same band on about 48,750 euro between them.
Qualifying easily is not qualifying usefully
Almost every social flat in Berlin asks for a WBS 100 or a WBS 140. The 160, 180 and 220 bands belong to the newer subsidised blocks and to buying a share in a housing cooperative, which is a much thinner slice of the stock than the two low bands.
The rules that catch flatshares out
A joint application is only possible for people who are related or who sign a Partnerschaftserklaerung, and separate certificates cannot be pooled, so three friends after one big flat are three one person households. The size rule is one room per person, with a single person allowed a one and a half or two room flat up to 50 square metres. The certificate is free, normally valid for one year, and valid across the whole city once issued.