Entrepreneur: When you pay wages, report the data to the Incomes Register

The payer reports the payments made to the Incomes Register. Earnings payment data is reported electronically on the earnings payment report and the employer's separate report.

Data reported to the Incomes Register includes information on wages, fringe benefits, fees, non-wage compensations for work and other earnings. Tax-exempt reimbursements of expenses, i.e. daily allowances, meal allowances and kilometre allowances, as well as all taxable reimbursements of expenses must be reported.

Submit data electronically

Data is reported electronically to the Incomes Register. The most convenient way to submit data is to send the information directly from the payroll system via the technical interface to the Incomes Register.

You can learn about electronic payroll accounting and reporting in the free-of-charge Palkka.fi service particularly intended for small entrepreneurs and households. In the Palkka.fi service, you can perform payroll calculations and report data directly to the Incomes Register without having to separately submit reports to the Incomes Register.

Data can also be reported to the Incomes Register in the e-service. You can submit data by uploading an XML file or by filling in a web form. The Incomes Register's e-service requires identification using personal online banking codes, a mobile certificate or a certificate card.

If your company does not yet use any e-services, now is a good time to switch to online transactions. Initially, this change will require learning new practices but in the long run it will make the employer's everyday life easier.

Data can be submitted to the Incomes Register on a paper form only in special circumstances. Special circumstances can be regarded as situations in which the electronic submission of data could not reasonably be required, such as when a natural person, estate, temporary employer or foreigner does not have the possibility of electronically submitting the data. Neither can data be reported to the Incomes Register by phone; instead, it must be reported in a specific format.

Authorisations can be granted for using the e-service

If a company uses the Incomes Register's e-service to report data, a person with an official role in the company can report the data on behalf of the company. Alternatively, a person with the right to sign for the company (e.g. Managing Director, Substitute for the Managing Director or a private trader) can authorise an accounting firm, for example, to report data to the Incomes Register on their behalf.

Authorisations can be granted via the Suomi.fi e-Authorisation service. Read more about authorisation.

Should the wages of a company's owner be reported?

With regard to reporting the earnings payment data of the owner of a company, it is significant whether or not the owner of the company can draw wages from the company.

• Wages paid to an owner of a limited liability company must be reported to the Incomes Register.
• Self-employed persons operating under a registered business name cannot withdraw wages. Instead, these withdrawals are withdrawals for private use. These are not reported to the Incomes Register. Self-employed persons operating under a registered business name handle their private withdrawals in their bookkeeping, and these withdrawals are reported on a tax return. However, if the self-employed person operating under a registered business name has employees, the wages paid to these employees are reported to the Incomes Register.
•  Wage income paid to YEL and MYEL insured entrepreneurs must be reported to the Incomes Register.

How to report advance pay

Data related to advance pay can be reported to the Incomes Register on the same earnings payment report that is used to report the actual wages paid if the advance pay and the actual wages are paid to the income earner during the same calendar month.

If the advance pay is paid during a different calendar month than the actual wages, the report must be submitted to the Incomes Register within 5 days of the payment date of the advance pay.

How to report fringe benefits

Fringe benefits are counted as income for the month during which the benefit was available to the income earner. Data concerning fringe benefits can be reported on the same report that is used to report the data on monetary wages. Alternatively, data on fringe benefits can be reported to the Incomes Register monthly, no later than on the fifth day of the calendar month following the month during which the income earner received the benefit.

A fringe benefit can also be reported as income for the month following its accrual if monetary wages from the month the fringe benefit was accrued are only paid during the following calendar month. In such a case, the deadline for reporting the fringe benefit is the fifth day of the month following the payment month of the monetary wages.

If the telephone benefit is processed in payroll accounting on an advance basis in January for the entire year, this benefit can also be reported to the Incomes Register in advance once a year.  It is possible to take this action when the payable income is not subject to earnings-related pension, unemployment, or accident and occupational disease insurance contributions, such as with YEL-insured shareholders. Another condition is that the person is not paid any other income or has not been issued any other benefit.

Read more about reporting fringe benefits.

How to report reimbursements of travel expenses

Tax-exempt and taxable reimbursements of expenses must also be reported to the Incomes Register.

With regard to tax-exempt reimbursements of expenses, kilometre allowances, daily allowances and meal allowances must be reported. Tax-exempt reimbursements of travel expenses must be reported to the Incomes Register by the fifth day of the month following the payment month.

The payments can be reported on one report once per month, even if there are several payment dates for reimbursements of expenses during the same month. The date of the last payment of reimbursements of expenses during the month is then entered as the payment date on the report.

Taxable reimbursements of expenses must be reported within five days of the payment date.

The following will not be reported to the Incomes Register, for example

• reimbursements of travel and accommodation expenses paid by the employer against a document, such as a ticket or a hotel invoice
• expense items that are the employer's responsibility
• for example, if an employee buys coffee and doughnuts for a work site and the expenses are reimbursed to the payer according to the receipts
• for example, if an employee fills up the company car on their own expense and this is paid back as a reimbursement of costs during the payment of wages
• compensations paid to the employer
• confirmed annual wage income used as the basis for social insurance contributions, determined for an insured entrepreneur under the self-employed persons' pensions act or the farmers' pensions act
• business income
• an exception to this: remunerations, for which tax must be withheld, paid to a worker not registered in the prepayment register, must be reported to the Incomes Register (using the income type 336 Non-wage compensation for work). The report must be submitted regardless of whether the recipient of the non-wage compensation for work is a natural person, a limited liability company, a general partnership or a limited partnership.