Incomes register makes applying for Kela benefits easier
When reviewing applications for benefit, Kela refers to data contained in the national incomes register. Applicants need not enclose any income statements with their application because Kela retrieves the relevant salary information from the national incomes register.
Finnish employers have been required to report salaries and other relevant information to the incomes register since the beginning of 2019. Employers must report the information to the register within 5 calendar days of the pay date.
You can check what information your employer has reported to the national incomes register. Use your online banking credentials or mobile ID to sign in to the e-service for the national incomes register at tulorekisteri.fi.
What kind of information do employers report?
Employers have to report wages, salaries, compensations, fringe benefits and compensations for travel costs to the national incomes registry.
Kela recommends that the employer also reports data on employment, absence from work and type of earnings to the national incomes register even though the reporting of this information is voluntary for the employer. This way they do not need to be reported to Kela separately.
Sickness allowances, parents’ allowances and rehabilitation allowances are calculated on the basis of 12-month income data available from the national incomes register.
A private household can calculate the wages it has paid for instance at Palkka.fi (www.palkka.fi in Finnish and Swedish). The data are automatically transmitted to the national incomes register.
What information should you also henceforth report to Kela?
For benefit determinations, Kela still needs some information that is not obtained from the national incomes register. The application forms and the e-service include information on the data that have to be submitted.
Other income-related data include for instance
- trade union dues
- unemployment fund dues
- rental income
- interest income
- dividends
- entrepreneurial income
If some data are missing from the application, Kela will ask you to provide them.
When you apply for a benefit, we recommend that you use our e-service. Please note that our e-service is only available in Finnish and Swedish.
Benefits and pensions data will be reported to the national incomes register starting in 2021
In addition to wage data, also data on paid benefits and pensions must be reported to the national incomes register starting from the beginning of 2021.
Kela reports data on all taxable benefits and on those tax-exempt benefits that affect the basic social assistance, as well as compensations for expenses in connection with unemployment benefits. These reported data replace the annual statements regarding benefits that were previously submitted to the Tax Administration.
Kela reports the following benefits to the national incomes register:
- allowance collected from compensation for loss of income
- partial sickness allowance
- sickness allowance
- sickness allowance on account of an infectious disease
- allowance in accordance with the YEL pension scheme
- special care allowances
- rehabilitation allowance
- rehabilitation allowance for pensioners
- partial rehabilitation allowance
- discretionary rehabilitation assistance
- rehabilitation allowance for young persons
- parental allowance
- partial parental allowance
- special pregnancy allowance
- paternity allowance
- pregnancy allowance
- flexible care allowance
- care supplement in the child home care allowance
- care allowance in the child home care allowance
- municipal supplement to the child home care allowance
- partial care allowance
- care supplement in the private daycare allowance paid to the parent
- care allowance in the private daycare allowance paid to the parent
- municipal supplement to the private daycare allowance paid to the parent
- disability pension
- old-age pension
- rehabilitation subsidy
- front-veterans’ supplement
- additional front-veterans' supplement
- child increase
- basic amount of orphan’s pension for students
- basic amount of orphan’s pension
- additional amount of orphan’s pension
- spouse’s initial pension
- basic amount of spouse’s continuing pension
- additional amount of spouse’s continuing pension
- housing allowance for pensioners
- front-veteran's supplement payable abroad
- guarantee pension
- supplementary amount
- compensation for expenses incurred abroad
- compensation for expenses
- increased expenses compensation
- child increase
- commuting and relocation allowance
- basic unemployment allowance
- labour market subsidy
- job alternation compensation
- general housing allowance
- interest assistance
- housing supplement
- study grant
- child benefit
- child maintenance allowance
- conscript’s allowance
Kela sends the data to the national incomes register within five calendar days of the date of payment. These reported data will not include any data from the benefit decision, nor data on any pending application.
The data in the national incomes register are used for instance for the following purposes: taxation, the awarding of benefits and pensions, the processing of insurance compensations, occupational safety and health, statistics and the determination of the client fees of the municipalities. The authorities and other users only receive the data that they are entitled to receive and which they need for their operations.
You can check from the webpage of the national incomes register to which users and for what purposes data are transmitted from the national incomes register.