Negative numbers

A report with errors submitted to the Incomes Register is corrected by submitting a replacement report. If a too large contribution or tax is collected from an employee, the situation can be corrected by correspondingly collecting less of the items in question from a payment made later.

As a rule, a report must not be corrected by reporting negative numbers, i.e. numbers with a minus sign. However, some income types can be exceptionally reported also with negative numbers. These are the only such income types:

• 402 Withholding
• 404 Tax at source
• 412 Employee's health insurance contribution
• 413 Employee's pension insurance contribution 
• 414 Employee's unemployment insurance contribution

Reporting a negative total may be necessary if the employee's employment has already ended and the correction cannot be made by collecting less of the items in question from the next payment. In such a case, the amount of tax withheld in excess and returned back to the income earner is reported as a negative number.

Excess payment

An excess payment cannot be corrected by reporting the amount as a negative number on the next earnings payment report. Reporting errors are corrected by submitting a replacement report. In certain situations, a submitted report can also be cancelled, or entirely deleted, if the wrong income earner has been specified, for example.

An excess payment is reported on an earnings payment report as unjust enrichment if the income earner is not entitled to the payment made to him/her and already reported to the Incomes Register. The report must be submitted without an undue delay once the unjust enrichment has been detected and it has been determined that it will be recovered from the income earner. The report must be submitted no later than after one month of the detection of the unjust enrichment.

Recovered income

When an income earner pays back an excess payment to the payer, such as an unjust enrichment, the data must always be reported to the Incomes Register.

The payback is not corrected on the previous report; instead, it is targeted at the pay period during which the payment was recovered from the income earner. An excess payment can be recovered either as a net amount or a gross amount.

For more information, see the instruction Correcting data in the Incomes Register.