Correcting fringe benefits
If an income earner has a fringe benefit, its value must be reported to the Incomes Register with a earnings payment report.
Read more about the reporting of fringe benefits
Correct the value of the fringe benefit by submitting a replacement report
If a fringe benefit has not been reported at all in connection with the salary, correct the said month’s report by submitting a replacement report.
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- Report fringe benefits using the 300 series types of income.
If you have reported an excessively low amount for a fringe benefit, correct the value by submitting a replacement report.
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- Enter the correct amount for the income type.
- If necessary, also correct the employee’s earnings-related pension and unemployment insurance contributions.
- The correct amount of contributions will be higher than before so more earnings-related pension and unemployment insurance contributions will have to be withheld from the income earner.
- Only report the new employee contributions to be collected in the report for the payment date on which you actually withheld them from the employee’s salary.
A fringe benefit is not an unjust enrichment
If you have overstated the amount of the fringe benefit, correct the value. If the fringe benefit has not been used by the employee at all, remove it from the report. In both cases, make the correction by submitting a replacement report.
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- A fringe benefit cannot be reported as an unjust enrichment or as recovered.
- Enter the correct amount for the income type or remove it from the report.
- If necessary, also correct the employee’s earnings-related pension and unemployment insurance contributions.
- The correct amount of contributions will be lower than before so overcharged contributions will have to be refunded to the employee. There are two ways to do this:
- You can reduce the earnings-related pension and unemployment insurance contributions for the next pay period. Report the contributions to the Incomes Register at the amount you have deducted from the employee’s salary.
- If you are no longer paying any salary to the employee, return the contributions to the employee. Report the amount returned to the Incomes Register as a negative figure with a new report.
Correcting a bicycle benefit or an employer-subsidised commuter ticket benefit
Correct a bicycle benefit or an employer-subsidised commuter ticket benefit you have given as an addition to wages similarly as any other fringe benefit. See the instructions for different situations in the previous sections.
If you gave these benefits by deducting them from wages, see the instructions below:
Correct an earlier earnings payment report by submitting a replacement report as follows:
- Do not change the amount of the monetary wages on the report if the amount reported earlier corresponds with the actual payment made.
- Correct the share of the bicycle benefit as follows:
- Report the share deducted from the monetary wages with income type 363 Bicycle benefit, tax-exempt share.
- Enter the following ‘Type of insurance information’ information for the income type:
- Subject to earnings-related pension insurance contribution: Grounds for insurance contribution: Yes
- Subject to unemployment insurance contribution: Grounds for insurance contribution: Yes
- Subject to accident and occupational disease insurance contribution: Grounds for insurance contribution: Yes
- Report the share that was erroneously not deducted from the monetary wages with the same income type 363 without entering the insurance information.
Example: Only 50 EUR was erroneously deducted from monetary wages
If the value of the bicycle benefit is 100 EUR and you erroneously only deducted 50 EUR from the monetary wages, report the following information on the benefit with an earnings payment report:
- Report 50 EUR with income type 363 Bicycle benefit, tax-exempt share and enter the following ‘Type of insurance information’ information for the income type:
- Subject to earnings-related pension insurance contribution: Grounds for insurance contribution: Yes
- Subject to unemployment insurance contribution: Grounds for insurance contribution: Yes
- Subject to accident and occupational disease insurance contribution: Grounds for insurance contribution: Yes
- Report 50 EUR with income type 363 Bicycle benefit, tax-exempt share.
The employer can deduct the share not deducted from the employee’s monetary wages later.
In this case, report the amount of monetary wages actually paid. If the total amount deducted from the monetary wages is equal to the amount of the bicycle benefit, report the benefit with income type 363 Bicycle benefit, tax-exempt share and enter the abovementioned insurance information.
If the total amount deducted is larger than the bicycle benefit, report the share of the deduction that exceeds the benefit with the income types for situations involving a substitute payer (322–324) because regardless of the deduction, the total amount of the income is considered earnings from work subject to earnings-related pension, unemployment insurance, and accident and occupational disease insurance contributions.
See also example 26 in the guideline Reporting data to the Incomes Register: fringe benefits and reimbursement of expenses.
You can correct an employer-subsidised commuter ticket benefit with the same method. In this case, use the income type for the employer-subsidised commuter ticket benefit.
If you deducted an amount that is too large from an employee’s wages, i.e. paid them too little in wages, you have the following options:
- pay the missing amount separately, or
- correct the situation in the next wage payment by including the excessively deducted share in the other wages paid.
In both cases, report the information on the payment as usual to the Incomes Register with an earnings payment report after the payment is made. Remember to also withhold taxes and collect employee contributions.
Correct an earlier report only if you have reported a data item such as the bicycle benefit incorrectly.
If there has been an error in the bicycle benefit, correct the earnings payment report you submitted previously with a replacement report as follows:
- Do not change the amount of the monetary wages on the report if the amount reported earlier corresponds with the actual payment made.
- Correct the amount of the bicycle benefit to the factual amount:
- Report the share deducted from the monetary wages with income type 363 Bicycle benefit, tax-exempt share.
- Make sure that you enter the following ‘Type of insurance information’ information for the income type:
- Subject to earnings-related pension insurance contribution: Grounds for insurance contribution: Yes
- Subject to unemployment insurance contribution: Grounds for insurance contribution: Yes
- Subject to accident and occupational disease insurance contribution: Grounds for insurance contribution: Yes
You can correct an employer-subsidised commuter ticket benefit with the same method. In this case, use the income type for the employer-subsidised commuter ticket benefit.
Detailed instructions and examples
Fringe benefits – see examples and read more about how to make corrections: