All the natural and legal persons providing the work are required to register the persons employed by them in the employment register. Commencement of the employment must be recorded latest by the moment when an employee commences the work, which means directly before starting the work.
Also, suspension and termination of a contract must be entered in the register. Employers have time for recording the suspension or termination of the employment for 10 calendar days as of the day of suspension or termination of the employment.
Employer is a resident or non-resident legal person in Estonia, Estonian state authority or a local government authority, a natural person or a self-employed person who concludes an agreement which forms the basis for working or who appoints a person performing the work to office.
The Estonian Health Insurance Fund uses the data of the employment register for granting the health insurance benefiits.
What kind of data must be entered in the register
- Employee’s given and family name and a personal identification code;
- employee’s date of birth, if the personal identification code is not available and the duration of the employment will be up to five days;
- employer’s name and registry code, or a personal identification code;
- date of commencement of the employment;
- type of the employment;
- initial and final dates of and the reason for the suspension of the employment;
- date of termination of the employment and the reason for termination.
Additional data required are the official title and the address of the workplace if a third-country national or a person with unspecified citizenship is concerned who is residing in Estonia under a temporary residence permit granting the admission to employment, or if a third-country national or a person with unspecified citizenship is concerned who is staying in Estonia with a visa or on the basis of a visa waiver and who has the right to work in Estonia.
How a foreigner can obtain the Estonian personal identification code needed for registration of the employment
- Persons who are staying in Estonia on a temporary basis (e.g. are working in Estonia but are residing in ohter member state) can apply for a personal identification code with the closest local government of the county center upon going there in person;
- upon submission of a notice of residence at the local government unit;
- persons who do not have the possibility to apply for the personal identification code in Estonia, e.g. are coming to work in Estonia with a visa, can submit the application with the foreign mission of Estonia in a foreign state.
How to register the employment
- In the e-Tax Board/e-Customs environment by entering the data manually or by uploading the file;
- via X-Road by means of machine-to-machine interface, delivering the employment data contained in the personnel management programmes of a company or agency;
- visiting a service bureau of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board in person.
It is also possible to use a simplified procedure for first registration by calling to 880 0812 or sending the SMS message to 1811. As the simplified registration covers only part of the required data, the registration must definitely be supplemented within 7 calendar days in order to complete the registration. Format of the SMS message is as follows: ”employer’s code(space)employee’s code(space)date of commencement of the employment“ and the SMS has to be sent at the phone number 1811.
Please find the additional information about registration of employment at the Tax and Customs Board homepage.