Register employees for social insurance

As an employer, you are obliged to register your employees with social insurance.

If you take on new employees, you must register them with the social security authorities.

This obligation to register applies to all your employees. This means that you not only have to register your employees who are subject to social insurance contributions, but also, for example

• marginally employed or short-term employees,
• trainees,
• trainees and interns,
• working students or
• pensioners with social insurance.

With the exception of mini-jobs in private households, the registration procedure is the same for all employees. For mini-jobs in private households, you must use the household check procedure at the mini-job center.

You must submit social security notifications electronically. If you use a system-checked payroll accounting program in your company, submit the notifications using this program. This is largely automated. Alternatively, you can transmit the data to the social insurance authorities using a system-checked completion aid, for example the social insurance reporting portal.

System-tested payroll accounting programs and completion aids also contain the necessary modules for all other electronic notifications to social insurance, which you are obliged to submit as an employer. In addition to the registration, the monthly contribution statement and the annual report are particularly important. In some sectors, you must submit an immediate notification in addition to the registration.

To register employees, you must provide the following information, among others:

• Personal data
• Social security number

The responsible collection agency is usually the employee's statutory health insurance fund; for marginal part-time employees, it is the Minijob-Zentrale. To prepare the registration, you can use the "Information portal for employers" of the Informationstechnische Servicestelle der gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung (ITSG). This information portal helps you to classify the employment relationship under social insurance law and to compile all the necessary data.

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If you are hiring staff for the first time, you will need a company number. You can obtain this from the company number service (BNS) of the Federal Employment Agency.

Appeal: If you receive a fine notice because you have not complied with the obligation to register, you can lodge an appeal within 2 weeks.

Depending on whether you carry out payroll accounting in your own company or have outsourced it, you can create the declaration yourself or have it created by your external service provider, such as a tax consultancy, a payroll office or a service data center.

• If you use a system-checked payroll accounting program, you can submit the declaration from this program with the notification reason "10".
• If you do not use a system-checked payroll accounting program, you can submit the registration using a system-checked completion aid such as the SV-Meldeportal.
• If you use the SV-Meldeportal, proceed as follows:
  • Go to the SV registration portal website.
  • If you do not yet have a user account, register for the first time.
  • Log in with your login details, your ELSTER organization certificate and your company number.
  • Under "Forms", select the "SI notification" tile and then the "Registration" form. Select the element "10 Start of employment".
  • Complete the form. All fields are provided with help texts. A manual is also available.
  • You will find messages and feedback in your mailbox there.
  • Save all relevant documents electronically or print them out for safekeeping and add them to the remuneration documents.

You must register your employees for social insurance with the next payslip, at the latest 6 weeks after the start of employment.

Immediate notification must be made by the start of employment at the latest.

Acceptance and processing of the transmitted data: The acceptance and processing of your data takes approximately 15 minutes.

The service is generally free of charge. If you use the SV-Meldeportal, the following user fees apply:

A three-year use of the SV-Meldeportal costs:

• EUR 36.00 excluding VAT if you report for your own company number,
• EUR 99.00 excluding VAT if you report for several company numbers.

• If you do not register employees, or do not register them correctly or on time, you are committing an offense and may face a fine of up to 25,000 euros. This also applies to immediate notification.