Employers take out insurance for their employees

As an employer, you are usually obligated to take out insurance for your employees and pay social insurance contributions for wages and other payments.

Social insurance contributions comprise the health insurance, the earnings-related pension insurance, the unemployment insurance, and the accident and occupational disease insurance contributions.

Insurance depends on such factors as the employee’s age and the amount of income

Check the amounts and rates of social insurance contributions on the Finnish Tax Administration’s website

Check the following instructions to see when you, as an employer, are obligated to take out insurance for your employees. Also check what information about different insurance policies and contributions must be reported to the Incomes Register.

Employer's health insurance contribution

Employee's health insurance contribution

  • Included in the amount withheld.
  • Not reported separately to the Incomes Register.
  • Withhold tax from an employee’s wages and report it to the Incomes Register under the income type Withholding (402) on the earnings payment report.

Employee's health insurance contribution in international employment situations

Health insurance contribution of an employee working abroad (minimum withholding)
  • If one of your employees who is covered by insurance in Finland works abroad and the six-month rule is applicable to their wages, apply minimum withholding based on wages for insurance purposes. Report the amount withheld to the Incomes Register under the income type Withholding (402).
Health insurance contribution of an employee who is a non-resident taxpayer
  • If an employee has a non-resident taxpayer’s tax card, the contribution is included in the amount withheld. Report the share of the health insurance contribution to the Incomes Register under the income type Withholding (402).
  • If you collect tax at source from the employee’s wages, withhold the health insurance contribution separately and report the following to the Incomes Register on an earnings payment report:
    • tax at source under the income type Tax at source (404); and
    • the employee’s health insurance contribution under the income type Employee’s health insurance contribution (412).

Read more about the topic, including the monetary thresholds in the Finnish Tax Administration's guidance Health insurance contributions in international employment situations.

Take out earnings-related pension insurance if

  • the employee is aged 17–68 years; and
  • you pay at least EUR 68.57 in wages a month to the employee.

The insurance obligation ends when the employee turns

  • 68 years, if the person is born in 1957 or earlier
  • 69 years, if the person is born in 1958–61
  • 70 years, if the person is born in 1962 or later.

Employee’s earnings-related pension insurance contribution

  • Withhold the contribution from an employee’s wages and report it to the Incomes Register under the income type Employee's earnings-related pension insurance contribution (413) on the earnings payment report.
  • Also enter Earnings-related pension insurance information, i.e. information about the pensions act according to which the income earner is insured:
    • Employee's earnings-related pension insurance, Pension insurance for farmers (MYEL) or Pension insurance for the self-employed (YEL).
    • If required, also specify the pension provider code and pension policy number.

Employer’s earnings-related pension insurance contribution

  • Not reported to the Incomes Register.
  • Pay the total amount to the earnings-related pension provider, i.e. the employer’s and the employee’s shares of the earnings-related pension insurance contribution. The earnings-related pension provider calculates the contributions based on the information reported to the Incomes Register.
  • You get payment information from your own earnings-related pension provider.
Lower limit for earnings-related pension insurance per month.

Lower limit for earnings-related pension insurance per month

Year
EUR 68.57 2024
EUR 65.26 2023
EUR 62.88 2022
EUR 61.37 2021
EUR 60.57 2020
EUR 59.36 2019

Read more about earnings-related pension insurance 

The unemployment insurance contribution must be paid if the employee is aged 18–64 years. The insurance obligation ends when the employee turns 68 years of age.

Employee's unemployment insurance contribution

  • Withhold the contribution from an employee’s wages and report it to the Incomes Register under the income type Employee's unemployment insurance contribution (414) on the earnings payment report.

Employer's unemployment insurance contribution

  • Not reported to the Incomes Register.
  • Pay the total amount to the Employment Fund, i.e. the employer’s and the employee’s shares of the unemployment insurance contribution. The Employment Fund calculates the contribution amount based on the information reported to the Incomes Register.
  • If total wages paid to all employees during the calendar year is less than EUR 1,500, you do not need to pay unemployment insurance contributions to the Employment Fund.
Age limit and lower limit for unemployment insurance contribution 
Age limit for unemployment insurance Lower limit for unemployment insurance contribution per year Year
18–64 years of age EUR 1,500 2024
18–64 years of age EUR 1,400 2023

18–64 years of age (valid from 1.8.2022)

17–64 years of age (valid till 31.7.2022)

EUR 1,300

2022
17–64 years of age EUR 1,300 2019–2021

Read more about unemployment insurance

Take out accident and occupational disease insurance if

  • an employee is in an employment relationship, a public-sector employment relationship or other relationship falling under the Employment Contracts Act with the employer; and
  • you pay more than EUR 1,500 in total wages subject to the occupational accident insurance contribution to all your employees during the calendar year.

Accident and occupational accident insurance does not include any separate employee’s contributions or similar age limits as in other insurances.

Accident and occupational accident insurance does not include any separate employee’s contributions or similar age limits as other types of insurance.

Accident and occupational disease insurance premium

  • Report with an earnings payment report to the Incomes Register
    • the employee’s occupational class
    • the occupational accident insurance company identifier and the policy number of the insurance, if you have taken out more than one statutory accident and occupational disease insurance policy for your employee.
  • The insurance contribution is not reported to the Incomes Register.
    • The occupational accident insurance provider calculates the contribution based on the information reported to the Incomes Register.
    • Pay the insurance contribution to the occupational accident insurance provider after you have received an invoice.
The annual lower limit for accident and occupational disease insurance
Lower limit for accident and occupational disease insurance per year Year
EUR 1,500 2024
EUR 1,400 2023
EUR 1,300 2019–2022

Read more about accident and occupational disease insurance

If you pay wages to a self-employed person insured under the self-employed persons' pensions act (YEL) (yrittäjän eläkelaki 1272/2006) or the farmers' pensions act (MYEL) (maatalousyrittäjän eläkelaki 1280/2006):

The following contributions do not need to be withheld from wages:

  • earnings-related pension contribution
  • unemployment contribution
  • accident and occupational disease insurance contribution.

Enter the No obligation to provide insurance data for these types of insurance.

Read more about reporting a self-employed person's wages

The insurance obligations described on this page also apply to households. Health insurance is the only exception.

  • If you pay at most 1,500 EUR in wages to a single individual during the year, you do not need to withhold tax or pay the employer’s health insurance contribution.
  • If you pay more than 1,500 EUR in wages to a single individual during the year, you need to withhold tax and report the total amount of the employer’s health insurance contribution to the Incomes Register by submitting the employer’s separate report. Read the instructions in health insurance section.

Also note the following pension insurance situations:

If you pay wages but have not entered into a pension insurance policy with a pension insurance provider, you are a temporary employer.

You can be a temporary employer if

  • you do not have any permanent employees;
  • you pay at most EUR 9,822 in total wages during six months; and
  • you have not entered into a pension insurance policy with a pension insurance provider.

Report the temporary employer’s information to the Incomes Register

  • Report the payer type Temporary employer (no TyEL insurance policy).
    • In the interface, this information is reported as part of the payer’s details.
    • In the e-service, this information is reported with other earnings-related pension insurance information on the “Income earner” page.
  • Report the pension provider code of the selected pension provider. In the interface, also enter the generic pension policy number of the temporary employer you have obtained from the provider.

  • Provide also the payer's address ja the address country code.

The temporary employer’s information does not need to be entered if you only pay non-wage compensation for work, tax-exempt kilometre allowances or other income not used as the basis for pensions. Furthermore, do not enter the information if you pay wages to a person with YEL insurance.

If you have entered into an insurance policy, even if the limit for wages is not exceeded, do not enter the payer type Temporary employer. In this case, enter your pension provider’s information and the pension policy number on the earnings payment report.

Wage limit for a temporary employer during six months.
Wage limit for a temporary employer during six months Year
EUR 9,822 2024
EUR 9,348 2023
EUR 9,006 2022
EUR 8,790 2021
EUR 8,676 2020
EUR 8,502 2019

When an employee retires, enter the following information on the earnings payment report:

  • start date and end date of the employment relationship
  • reason code for the termination of the employment relationship according to Incomes Register codes: 6 Retirement.

The earnings-related pension provider obtains the information from the Incomes Register

If the employee’s pension insurance provider is either Keva or the Bank of Finland, also enter

  • reason code for the termination of the employment relationship according to Keva or Bank of Finland codes
  • grounds for employment registration
  • occupational class and other occupation details.

If the employee continues working while being retired, wages paid are reported to the Incomes Register as normal. These employees are usually also insured.

Read more about retirement

 

Different types of insurance have different age limits. In all types, the insurance obligation starts from the beginning of the month following the month during which the lower age limit was reached. The obligation ends at the end of the month during which the income earner turns 68 (health insurance and earnings-related pension insurance) or 65 years (unemployment insurance).

If there is no insurance obligation, this must also be reported.

Read more about exceptions to insurance and insurance information under a specific income type

Detailed instructions and examples

Check the examples and read more about insurance:

 Reporting data to the Incomes Register: insurance-related data

Reporting data to the Incomes Register: International situations

Page last updated 2/6/2024