Households as employers – what to report to the Incomes Register and when?
Households can employ people in many different ways and purchase various services, such as having the house renovated or cleaned, paying childminders or arranging festive occasions through a catering service.
Usually, households either hire an employee or purchase the service from a business. If a household hires an employee, it is responsible for managing the employer's obligations. A household refers to a private individual or a death estate.
With regard to the employer's obligation to report, it is important to know
- whether you pay the employee wages or a non-wage compensation for work
- whether the recipient of a non-wage compensation for work is registered in the prepayment register
- whether you, as the employer, are obliged to withhold tax and pay the social insurance contributions.
What information does the household have to report to the Incomes Register?
Data reported to the Incomes Register includes wages, fringe benefits, bonuses, non-wage compensations for work and other earnings. Reimbursements of expenses must also be reported.
Check here the cases when a household must report information to the Incomes Register.
Are you the employer of an employee or is there an invoice for the work done?
I hire an employee, so I am an employer.
- Report earnings payment data to the Incomes Register.
I purchase the service from a service provider and pay against an invoice.
- The service provider belongs to the prepayment register.
- The information need not be reported to the Incomes Register.
- The service provider does not belong to the prepayment register.
- Report the data to the Incomes Register.
You can check whether the service provider is registered in the prepayment register by searching data in the business information system (www.ytj.fi). You can also call the Tax Administration’s Tax Service at 029 497 004 (Self-employed person’s income taxation, telephone charge: local call charge/mobile phone call charge).
- There is no monetary minimum threshold for information reported to the Incomes Register; all earnings information must be reported regardless of the amount.
- Wages paid to minors must also be reported to the Incomes Register
- All wages or other earned income must be reported to the Incomes Register on an earnings payment report.
- The Incomes Register only applies to reporting of wages and other earned income paid. For instructions on how to pay your employee's wages, see the websites of for instance the Tax Administration, earnings-related pension institutions or the Employment Fund.
- If you use the Palkka.fi service for paying the wages, the service automatically sends households’ reports to the Incomes Register. You are not required to report anything separately to the Incomes Register.
When will paid wages and other earned income be reported to the Incomes Register?
If a household is not registered in the Employer Register (a casual employer)
- An earnings payment report for payments made must be submitted electronically to the Incomes Register monthly no later than on the fifth day of the calendar month following the payment month.
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Households that are casual employers must submit the employer’s separate report for the wage payment months only when they pay wages more than EUR 1,500 in total over a calendar year.
Example: A household pays EUR 90 of wages to its hired childminder on 15 January. No taxes were withheld or employer contributions paid for the wages. The household must report the wages paid and the employee’s shares of the earnings-related pension insurance contribution and unemployment insurance contribution to the Incomes Register electronically no later than on the fifth day of the calendar month following the payment month, i.e. by 5 February.
- If the report is submitted on a paper form, the deadline is the eighth day of the following calendar month. Information can be submitted on a paper form only in special circumstances, for example, if filing an electronic report is impossible for an individual, estate, casual employer or foreign national due to technical obstacles.
If a household is registered in the Employer Register (a regular employer)
- The earnings payment report must be submitted electronically no later than on the fifth calendar day after the payment date.
- The employer's separate report is submitted monthly, no later than on the fifth day of the calendar month following the payment month.
- If the household pays wages regularly, but submits, for special reasons, the information on a paper form, the same deadline applies as for other regular employers. The earnings payment report must be submitted on the 8th calendar day after the payment date and the employer's separate report no later than the 8th day of the calendar month following the payment month.
- Information can be submitted on a paper form only in special circumstances, for example, if filing an electronic report is impossible for an individual, estate, casual employer or foreign national due to technical obstacles.
- There is no specific deadline for reporting complementary data, but it is advisable to provide it simultaneously with mandatory data. Complementary data includes information on absences and certain information on the employment.
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