When your employee works in Finland – instructions for foreign employers

As a foreign employer, you need to take care of your employee’s pension and social security when your employees are working in Finland. This also applies to remote work in Finland.

Insure your employees working in Finland 

All work performed in Finland is insured in Finland. This also applies to remote work in Finland. As a foreign employer, you are obliged to arrange statutory pension and social security for your employees working in Finland, regardless of the nationality of the employee and employer. 

If your employee has been granted an A1 certificate from another country than Finland, the employee's pension and social security must be arranged into the country issuing the certificate, as stated in the A1 form. Read more on A1-certificate (etk.fi) 

Both the employer and the employee pay earnings-related pension contributions. The employer withholds the employee's pension contribution from the wages and pays it to the earnings-related pension provider. In case the employee is regularly working remotely also in other countries, please contact the Finnish Centre for Pensions to ensure your employee is insured into the right country. Read more on to how to insure employer in Finland and how to Insure an employee working in several countries. (etk.fi) 

Pensioners receive their entire earnings-related pension from the same earnings-related pension provider, even if they have worked in different fields and been insured by several different earnings-related pension providers during their career. Read more on pension from work performed abroad  

Do this:

  1. 1. Find out if you need TyEL insurance and buy it online

    The employer's earnings-related pension insurance (TyEL) is a statutory insurance in Finland for securing your employee's pension. You need TyEL insurance when: 

    • you have at least one employee in a continuous employment relationship who works in Finland, or 
    • if you pay your employee working in Finland more than EUR 9,822 over a six-month period in 2024. 

    You can buy TyEL insurance effortlessly online and read more on employers insurance.

    Buy TyEL insurance

  2. 2. Report earnings payment data to the Incomes Register

    The TyEL contribution for TyEL insurance is formed on the basis of earnings payment data reported to the Incomes Register. We receive earnings payment data directly from the Incomes Register every two hours. 

    You must report all wages paid to your employee working in Finland to the Incomes Register. Submit a report within five days of the salary payment. Do this after each salary payment. 

    Report salary information in euros. If payment is made in another currency, it shall be converted into euro using the ECB reference exchange rate in force on the date of payment. 

    Read more about reporting earnings payment data  

    Read more about the TyEL contribution and its formation 

     

    If you do not have a Finnish personal identity code 

    A representative of an employer who does not have a Finnish personal identity code can order the service IDs to the Incomes Register through the Suomi.fi service. After this, the person can report the employee's earnings payment data to the Incomes Register. Read more on how to report earnings and how to report without  

    A foreign citizen moving to Finland from abroad will receive a personal identity code when he or she has been registered in the Population Information System in connection with the granting of a residence permit or at his or her own request. Read more on the Digital and Population Data Services Agency's website (dvv.fi). 
     
    A representative of a foreign company can use MyTax and other e-services on the company’s behalf if they have a Finnish personal ID or a foreign individual’s unique identifier UID (Finnish Authenticator app) as well as a Suomi.fi authorization. Read more on how foreign companies grant an authorisation for tax matters (vero.fi). 

  3. 3. Take care of your TyEL insurance matters in our online service.

    As our customer, you can easily monitor and take care of TyEL invoices and other matters related to TyEL insurance in our online service. In the service, you can, for example, check the wages on which your TyEL invoice is based by employee.

    Buy TyEL insurance Transfer TyEL insurance to us

Examples

In the example situations below, you will find instructions on how a foreign employer should act. 

  1. The employer is a Belgian company, and their employee works completely remotely from home in Finland. In this situation, the employee is covered by Finnish social security under EU social security rules. A Belgian employer must take out pension insurance for the employee in Finland. The employee accrues earnings-related pension in Finland and is covered by Finnish social security. 

    Read more on EU and international security (stm.fi) 

  2. An American university employs a Finnish teacher who works completely remotely from home in Finland. The United States is a social security agreement country. If the work performed by the employee at the university is public service work, the employee is covered by the social security agreement between Finland and the United States, even though all the work is performed in Finland. In this case, the employee needs a certificate as proof of coverage under Finnish social security. Apply for a certificate from the Finnish Centre for Pensions (etk.fi). 

    If the employee has some other job in addition to official work, you can get help from the Finnish Centre for Pensions. 

    Read more about the U.S. Convention on Social Security (ssa.gov - international agreements)