Self employed in Germany and FICA (soc. security tax) in USA

[Sx4]

I was reading PandaMunich's response in this thread viewtopic.php?p=5499&hilit=teacher#p5499
regarding regarding public pension contribution as a kleinunternehmer (essentially that they don't have to pay public pension contributions).

So if one doesn't pay in the Germany pension system, as a US citizen would they then have to pay FICA (self employment tax) in the US tax filing (I realize the totalization agreement covers if one pays into the pension plans of the resident country), but what happens if they are exempt (like the above case of kleinunternehmer?

[PandaMunich]

I was reading PandaMunich's response in this thread viewtopic.php?p=5499&hilit=teacher#p5499
regarding regarding public pension contribution as a kleinunternehmer (essentially that they don't have to pay public pension contributions).

So if one doesn't pay in the Germany pension system, as a US citizen would they then have to pay FICA (self employment tax) in the US tax filing (I realize the totalization agreement covers if one pays into the pension plans of the resident country), but what happens if they are exempt (like the above case of kleinunternehmer?

We had a long discussion about this on the old forum.

Summary:
To avoid paying US self-employment tax, you do not need to actually pay any German public pension contributions.
You just need to be "subject to" German social security legislation, which everybody who lives in Germany is.

You will get the form "Certificate of Coverage D/USA 101-A" from Deutsche Rentenversicherung even if you do not pay any German public pension contributions.
Just send them them this application every year: