Employment Register Obligations

Therefore, you need to register your foreign employees – both EU and non-EU/EEA employees in the Employment Register with the Estonian Tax and Customs Board. This is solely your responsibility as an employer.

You can register the employment via the e-Tax Board or by visiting an Estonian Tax and Customs Board office. Additional information about registration of employment is available on the website of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board.

The Employment Register is an important source of information – in relation to foreign employees – for various Estonian authorities:

• For the Estonian Health Insurance Fund – checking health-insurance coverage and the right of a foreign employee to receive health-insurance benefits in Estonia;
• For the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board – checking the compliance of employment conditions prescribed by a visa or residence permit for employment;
• For the Estonian Social Insurance Board – checking the right of a foreign worker to receive social benefits;
• For the Estonian Tax and Customs Board – a good source for monitoring the performance of the tax liabilities by employer and employee.

Please do not confuse registration in the Employment Register with the registration of an employee for tax residency or payroll purposes OR with the registration of an employee’s place of residence OR with the registration of short-term employment of visa holders with the Police and Border Guard Board.

Basis for registration

For registration purposes, the employee has to have an Estonian ID code before starting work in Estonia. However, there is a possibility to register the employee using their date of birth (but only up to 5 days!). In that case, the employee will not receive any social-security coverage in Estonia.

Time for registration

An employee should be registered in the employment register with the Tax and Customs Board – at the very latest – when he or she commences work.

The same procedure applies to non-resident employees. You have 10 calendar days from the occurrence-date to record the suspension – or termination – of employment.

Upon registering the employee in the employment register, the following data is required:

• The name and the surname of the employee;
• Personal identification code of the employee;
• The employee’s date of birth, if a personal identification code is not available (the registration with the date of birth is only valid up to 5 days);
• The employer’s name and registry code, or a personal-identification code;
• Date of commencement of employment;
• Type of employment;
• Initial and final dates of – and reason for – suspension of the employment;
• Date of termination of the employment and reason for termination.

Take note: the following data is required for registering the employment of a non-EU/EEA national or a person with unspecified citizenship who is working on the basis of a visa or temporary-residence permit:

• The official title of the employment;
• The address of the place of employment if a non-EU/EEA national – or a person with unspecified citizenship – is residing in Estonia under a temporary-residence permit granting them the right to employment.