Payers

Employers or other payers must report the details of earned income to the Incomes Register within five days of payment. Other payers include associations, foundations, consortia, housing corporations and parties paying pension or benefits.

Wages paid as of 2019 are reported to the Incomes Register. As of 2021 pensions and benefits payment data is also included in the register.

The Incomes Register simplifies and clarifies payers' reporting obligations. The payer will only need to submit the information to the Incomes Register, from which the data users who need the information can retrieve it.

Information can be submitted to the Incomes Register using a technical interface. This refers to an electronic link between a payroll system or the system of a benefit payer and the Incomes Register. Information can be submitted in the Incomes Register’s e-service either on an online form or by uploading files via the upload service.

Earnings payment data can be submitted on paper only in special circumstances. Pensions and benefits data cannot be submitted on paper.

Reporting in a nutshell

The payer reports data separately on each income earner to the Incomes Register in accordance with jointly accepted practices. The following general principles apply to reporting data to the Incomes Register:

1. Paid gross wages and other payments are reported to the Incomes Register separately for each income earner.
   • The total amount of wages, withholding tax and tax at source is not reported.
   • Only the total amount of health insurance contributions is reported separately on a monthly basis on the employer’s separate report.
2. The obligation to report data is established when a payment is made.
3. Primarily, there is no lower euro limit for the data to be reported to the Incomes Register.
   • Competition prizes are only reported if their value is more than EUR 100.
4. Data on a single income earner on a single payment date is only provided on a single earnings payment report.
5. Several income types can be submitted on a single earnings payment report for one income earner.
6. The items deducted from wages can be reported as a total amount of all income types, even if the report includes several income types.
   • Deductible items include withholding tax, tax at source and the employee’s earnings-related pension and unemployment insurance contributions.
   • A report cannot include deductible items only (400 series income types), as the report must always include the payment, from which items are deducted.
7. On earnings payment reports, many items of data are reported as code values selected from the Incomes Register’s codes.
   • For example, payments made and the income earner’s occupation are reported as code values. 
8. A single record can include all earnings payment reports of a single payer, a single payment date and a single pay period for different income earners.
   • It is irrelevant whether some income earners are in an employment relationship and whether some are not.

You can also read the detailed guidance Wages: reporting data to the Incomes Register.