The Incomes Register five-day rule

Wages are paid, and then there are five days.

What is reported, and when

An earnings payment report goes to the Incomes Register no later than the fifth calendar day after the payment date. It covers wages and fees that have been paid, and one is filed for each payment transaction.

So the rhythm follows pay dates rather than calendar months. An employer paying wages twice a month files twelve reports a year rather than six, which is the first thing that surprises anyone used to monthly filing.

Five calendar days, not business days

This is where the mistakes come from. The count is in calendar days, so Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are included.

Wages paid on a Friday are therefore due on the Wednesday, not the following Friday. If the fifth day itself falls on a weekend or a holiday, the report may be filed on the next business day, but that is an exception rather than the rule. You cannot plan around it, because whether it applies depends on where the payment date happens to fall.

The practical consequence is that pay dates are worth choosing deliberately. The last day of the month and Friday are the two most common paydays, and both produce a deadline that runs across a weekend. A payday in the middle of the week gives five whole business days instead. Same rule, considerably easier schedule.

The payment date is the day the money is available

The payment date is not the day the transfer left the bank, and it is not the day the pay period ended. It is the day the money is available to the employee.

The distinction sounds small and is not. If the payment date is read wrongly, the entire five-day count is wrong with it, and nothing reveals the error until after it has happened.

The obligation is separate from paying

A late-filing penalty may be imposed on mandatory data reported late. The amount depends on the situation and is worth checking with the Tax Administration directly.

The part that matters is different: the delay is penalised in itself. Wages can be calculated correctly, paid correctly and for the right amount, and the report still be late. Reporting is an obligation standing alongside payroll, not an appendix to it.

A report that has been filed can also be corrected. Where an error comes to light afterwards the report is replaced with a new one, and that is an ordinary event rather than an exceptional one. What gets expensive is an error nobody notices until somebody else does.

How we handle it

We produce the payslips, run the payments and file the Incomes Register reports as one piece of work, so the five-day deadline is not in your calendar.

Payroll sets out what the work covers and pricing says what it costs. How we work explains what we need from you and when.

And if reports have been filed late, say so straight away. A late report can be corrected, and correcting it is cheaper the earlier somebody looks at it.

Source: Finnish Tax Administration, Incomes Register, the earnings payment report deadline and the definition of the payment date.