A household hires an employee – households as employers
When you pay wages to an employee, you are responsible for employer's obligations such as withholding tax, employer's health insurance contributions, earnings-related pension insurance and accident and occupational disease insurance. Report wages and other earned income, including fringe benefits and reimbursement of travel expenses to the Incomes Register.
Always report wage income and earned income data to the Incomes Register
Households must report wages and other earned income data to the Incomes Register without exception.
- There is no monetary minimum threshold for information reported to the Incomes Register. All information must be reported.
The age of the income earner is irrelevant with regard to the duty to report, but the amount of wages and the employee’s age do influence the household’s other employer obligations, such as which payments related to payment of wages must be paid and which insurances must be provided.
The euro limits related to obligations listed below apply to both private individuals and death estates.
If the gross total amount of wages you pay to one or several persons is up to EUR 1,400 in a calendar year, you must report to the Incomes Register:
- the wages paid
- the employee’s share of the earnings-related pension insurance contribution withheld from the wages.
- You must withhold the earnings-related pension insurance contribution if the wages total a certain minimum sum per month (EUR 65.26 per month in 2023).
- the employee’s share of the unemployment insurance contribution withheld from the wages.
- As an employer, you must always withhold the employee’s share of the unemployment insurance contribution from the wages even if you do not have to pay the employer's share.
- The Employment fund does not set the unemployment insurance contribution until EUR 1,400 is exceeded. In that case, the contribution is based on the total sum of wages, not only the share exceeding EUR 1,400.
No withholding tax or employer's health insurance contributions are payable from the wages if no employee’s wages exceed EUR 1,500 per year. However, if you have withheld taxes or paid health insurance contributions, they must be reported to the Incomes Register.
If the sum of gross wages paid by you to all persons totals over EUR 1,400 per calendar year, but the wages of one person are no more than EUR 1,500 per year, you must report to the Incomes Register:
- the wages paid
- the employee’s share of the earnings-related pension insurance contribution withheld from the wages
- You must withhold the earnings-related pension insurance contribution if the wages total a certain minimum sum per month (EUR 65.26 per month in 2023).
- The employee’s share of the unemployment insurance contribution withheld from the wages.
- Employment Fund fund will set the unemployment insurance contribution when EUR 1,400 is exceeded. In that case, the contribution is based on the total sum of wages, not only the share exceeding EUR 1,400.
No withholding tax or employer's health insurance contributions are payable from the wages if no employee’s wages exceed EUR 1,500 per year. However, if you have withheld taxes or paid health insurance contributions, they must be reported to the Incomes Register.
In addition, you must
- Take out accident and occupational disease insurance for the persons you have hired, before they start working, and report to the Incomes Register the employee's occupational class.
More information about insurance, insurance contributions and the related age and monetary limits is available on insurance companies’ websites.
If you pay more than EUR 1,500 in gross wages to one person per year, you must report to the Incomes Register:
- the wages paid and the taxes withheld from the wages
- the employee’s share of the earnings-related pension insurance contribution withheld from the wages.
- You must withhold the earnings-related pension insurance contribution if the wages total a certain minimum sum per month (EUR 65.26 per month in 2023).
- the employee’s share of the unemployment insurance contribution withheld from the wages
- The Employment Fund will set the unemployment insurance contribution when EUR 1,400 is exceeded. In that case, the contribution is based on the total sum of wages, not only the share exceeding EUR 1,400.
- employer's health insurance contributions paid.
In addition, you must
- Take out accident and occupational disease insurance for the persons you have hired, before they start working, and report to the Incomes Register the employee's occupational class.
More information about insurance, insurance contributions and the related age and monetary limits is available on insurance companies’ websites.
Which reports must households send to the Incomes Register?
Wages paid and other information related to the payment are reported to the Incomes Register on an earnings payment report. The information is reported after each payment of wages separately for each income earner. All information must be reported; the amount of the payment is irrelevant.
Employer's health insurance contributions paid are reported as a total sum using the employer's separate report.
Check the deadlines for reporting:When will paid wages and other earned income be reported to the Incomes Register?
Both mandatory and complementary data will be reported to the Incomes Register
The information reported to the Incomes Register with the earnings payment report can be mandatory data or complementary data. Complementary data is needed for instance as basis for granting or paying benefits.
When you submit the necessary complementary data with the information on paid wages, you will need to deliver fewer complementary reports. If you do not report the information, the authority that needs the information may have to request you to provide the information separately at a later date.
How should the information be reported to the Incomes Register?
It is recommended, and most convenient, to send the information directly from the payroll software (e.g. Palkka.fi) to the Incomes Register.
If you use the Palkka.fi service for paying the wages, the service automatically sends households’ reports to the Incomes Register. In this case, you need not report anything separately to the Incomes Register.
If you do not use the Palkka.fi service, you can submit the information to the Incomes Register for instance on an online form in the Incomes Register’s e-service, into which you log in from the website incomesregister.fi. The e-service requires authentication with online banking codes, a mobile certificate or certificate card. Households may also authorise another person or company to transact business on their behalf and report information to the Incomes Register. Authorisation for using the Incomes Register is possible from autumn 2018. Authorisations are generated in the Suomi.fi authorisation service.
Information can be reported to the Incomes Register 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.