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In Germany, if a person (a German national or not) receives a public scholarship (i.e funded by the government), they cannot earn more than 400Euros addition to the money they are getting from the scholarship.

Now, I have made some savings prior to getting a public scholarship from the German government, and I would like to invest that money into the stock market.

Does this mean that if I, for example, buy distributing ETFs, the dividends should be less than 4800Euros in a given year? What about the unrealized capital gains. For example, with some miracle if I double my savings in a single year, will I lose my scholarship?

Edit:

It is a DAAD scholarship.

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1 Answers1

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Different (public) scholarships in Germany have different conditions.

  • Some of them, e.g. Bafög are explicitly tied to being in financial need. These scholarships may have limits both on the wealth of the applicant and on income (applicant's and possibly also their parents' income). Income here will be taxable income which includes capital gains.

  • There are also scholarships that do not consider wealth. However, AFAIK most if not all scholarships limit employment (Nichtselbständige Arbeit). I think it is more usual here to have a limit on the hours worked rather than the income generated, so capital gains are not considered here. (The reasoning here is that the scholarship is given in order to give the scholarship holder time to study)

You should have received some terms and conditions for the particular scholarship usually when you applied or latest together with the approval letter. If not, ask DAAD to email them again.

If these conditions do not explicitly mention a limit on wealth or income, the scholarship is granted independent of your wealth and income.

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