Company number for social security notifications assigned on request

As an employer, you must register your employees who are subject to social insurance contributions. You will need a company number for this.

As soon as you employ the first person subject to compulsory insurance, you must apply for a company number for the company in which the person works.

The company number is usually issued by the Federal Employment Agency upon electronic application. A customer data record is created for you in which your company master data is registered. The social insurance institutions can then use the company number to assign the notifications to the health, pension and unemployment insurance schemes to your employment company.

One or more company numbers?

• As the employer of a company with only one location, you only need one company number.
• You will need several company numbers if you have branches in several municipalities.
• You also need several establishment numbers if you are the owner of several establishments in the same municipality, each of which forms an independent economic unit.

Registered office abroad

If you are an employer based abroad, you may need a company number - if you have to report workers employed in Germany to the German social security system. This could be sales staff or customer advisors working from home, for example.

Special rules for private households, miners and shipping companies

• You want to employ someone in your private household on a marginal basis (mini-job): Please contact the mini-job center of the German pension insurance Knappschaft-Bahn-See.
• You are a miner's company (extraction of minerals, e.g. coal), employ staff in a miner's company or employ workers who carry out miner's work in mines or are used for remediation work in opencast mines: Please contact Deutsche Rentenversicherung Knappschaft-Bahn-See.
• You are a seafaring company (including coastal fishermen and coastal skippers): Please contact Deutsche Rentenversicherung Knappschaft-Bahn-See.

You must provide the following minimum information:

• the name used by the employing company in legal transactions, including any additions to the legal form,
• unregistered civil law partnership: first and last names of the partners,
• sole proprietorship not entered in the commercial register: First name and surname of the employer,
• private household: first name and surname of the head of household,
• the employment address, i.e. the current address of the company at which the employees actually work,
• if necessary, a different address to be used for postal delivery,
• additional communication channels such as telephone number, fax or e-mail address,
• the economic focus of the employing company,
• the accident insurance company number for the company to which the employing company belongs,
• Contact person (name, function, telephone number) for queries regarding the notification procedure; this can also be the contact details of a contracted service provider, e.g. a tax consultancy,
• if another employment company within the company registers the employees for social insurance: the name, address and company number of this office.

As a rule, however, the company number service of the Federal Employment Agency does not require any written proof in order to process your application.

Forms available: No
Written form required: No
Informal application possible: No
Personal appearance necessary: No
Online services available: Yes

You employ an employee subject to compulsory insurance for the first time in the relevant employing company.

not applicable

Please apply for your company number electronically. You can submit the application yourself or commission someone else to do so, for example a tax consultant.

• Go to the online application on the Federal Employment Agency website.
• Answer the initial questions in the selection fields and follow the online form through the rest of the application process.
• In most cases, the company number is assigned and displayed immediately.
• In addition, the employer will receive a postal confirmation of the company number and the saved master data.

Note: If there are changes to the master data or the business closes, you must notify the Federal Employment Agency electronically without delay. As a rule, your payroll accounting software automatically triggers a corresponding notification to the Federal Employment Agency as soon as you enter the relevant changes in the master data.

Special rule for companies subject to immediate registration: If your company belongs to one of the following sectors, you will need the establishment number for registration at the latest when the first employee starts work:

• Construction,
• Catering and accommodation,
• passenger transportation,
• freight forwarding, transportation and related logistics,
• the fairground industry,
• forestry,
• building cleaning industry,
• Companies involved in the construction and dismantling of trade fairs and exhibitions,
• meat industry
• prostitution industry,
• Guard and security industry

In most cases, the company number is displayed immediately when you apply electronically.

None

Please always use the company number of the company in which the employee concerned actually works in the social security notifications. If there are any changes to the company master data provided when submitting the application, please submit the correct information to the Federal Employment Agency electronically without delay by entering it in your payroll accounting program or using a completion aid. Incorrect use of the company number or late/failed notification of changes may constitute an administrative offense.