Payments and certificates

The amount of your YEL insurance contribution is affected by your age, your YEL income, a possible discount for starting entrepreneurs, the timing of your payments and the number of payment instalments.

YEL insurance contribution 2024

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health annually confirms the contribution percentages according to which the YEL insurance contributions are calculated. In 2024, the YEL insurance contribution is:

For those aged 18–52, 24.10% of the confirmed YEL income.
For those aged 53–62, 25.60% of the confirmed YEL income.
For those aged 63 and older, 24.10% of the YEL income from the beginning of the year following the year in which the individual turns 63.

You can calculate an estimate of your YEL contribution using Elo’s YEL calculator.

Social insurance contributions 2024

Do you need a YEL certificate?

You can print or save the following YEL certificates from our Online Service:

Validity and payment certificate
Yel income certificate
YEL income and payment certificate (e.g., as an attachment to an application for an allowance from the unemployment fund)
Certificate of paid contributions
Record of the current payment situation

You can also fill in your information for electronic invoicing at our Online Service.

Reduced contributions for starting entrepreneurs

As a starting entrepreneur, you are entitled to a 22 per cent discount on your YEL insurance contributions for the first 48 months of your business activities.

If your initial YEL insurance policy started after 1 January 2001 and you still have months of discount remaining, those months of discount are applicable to your second YEL insurance. The discount cannot, however, be applied to a third YEL insurance period, even if the total amount of the discount periods is less than 48 months.

The first time that you transfer from TyEL to YEL coverage, your entrepreneurial activities are considered to have begun on the date of transfer.

You are not entitled to the discount for starting entrepreneurs if the Finnish Centre for Pensions has been compelled to take a YEL insurance policy on your behalf as a result of your negligence.

Did you know that your YEL contributions are tax-deductible?

YEL contributions are entirely deductible in either the entrepreneur’s personal taxation or that of a spouse or a company, depending on who has been designated as the payer for the YEL insurance. When the YEL contribution has been deducted in taxation, the actual amount paid by you is less. If you need a certificate confirming your paid YEL contributions, you can get it easily from our Online Service.

Useful information about YEL contributions

Electronic receipt of YEL invoices

The payment of insurance contributions is effortless using our electronic invoices. It enables you to receive your insurance invoices directly to your company’s invoice processing system or online banking service. If you would like eInvoices to come to your own personal online banking service, you need to sign an agreement for eInvoicing with your own bank. You can also elect to receive invoices to your email or to the OmaPosti service.

Submit your electronic invoice information to Elo through our Online Service. If you do not have access to Elo’s Online Service, you can submit your electronic invoice recipient details using this form.

Read the instructions on how to take electronic invoice into use >

Payment extension for an invoice that is falling due

You can request a payment extension for your invoices easily using Elo’s Online Service. Through our Online Service, you can request a payment extension of up to 30 days from the original due date on the invoice. The payment extension is always subject to penalty interest. You can always also contact Elo’s Customer Service to discuss your payment extension matters: +358 (0)20 694 730 (weekdays 8 a.m.–5 p.m.) You should apply for a payment extension in time, because we charge 5 euros for sending a YEL reminder invoice.

Outstanding insurance contributions

All YEL insurance contributions must be paid within five years from the start of the year following the invoicing year. If the contributions are not paid within this time frame, the contributions will expire. Expired insurance contributions will reduce your overall YEL income amount and, eventually, the amount of your future pension. For each year, the YEL income amount will be reduced in proportion to the unpaid contributions.

Contribution due dates and delayed payments

YEL insurance contributions fall due on the 20th day of the agreed calendar months or on the next business day. If you pay your YEL contribution after its due date, penalty interest will be added from the due date to the date on which the payment is made. The Bank of Finland confirms the penalty interest biannually on 1 January and 1 July.

Submitting reports concerning entrepreneurial wages or salaries to the Incomes Register

The YEL income for YEL-insured entrepreneurs is not reported to the Incomes Register, but any wages or salary paid to the YEL-insured entrepreneur must be reported to the Incomes Register.

Any wages or salary paid to the owner of a limited liability company shall be reported to the Incomes Register (in the same way as the earlier notifications submitted to the tax authorities).
Any private withdrawals made as a sole proprietor are processed in the bookkeeping for the sole proprietor and reported in tax returns.

When earnings from entrepreneurial activities are reported in an earnings payment report, it is important that the payer remembers to include, in the Income earner field: Earnings-related pension insurance: YEL insurance for self-employed persons (YEL).

Additionally, the following must be reported: Type of exception to insurance:

No obligation to insure (earnings-related pension insurance)
No obligation to insure (accident and occupational disease insurance)
No obligation to insure (unemployment insurance)

The wages or salary paid to an entrepreneur are marked as being subject to paying health insurance contributions, so under the Type of exception to insurance, the following cannot be selected: No obligation to insure (earnings-related pension, health, unemployment or occupational accident and disease insurance), because this would exclude all social insurance contributions.

The YEL insurance policy number, the Business ID of the pension provider and the pension policy number are not reported to the Incomes Register.

Flex pay for YEL insurance contributions

You can accrue additional pension for yourself during good financial years by paying a higher YEL contribution or opt to reduce the contribution during less profitable years. This is referred to as the YEL flex pay system. YEL flex pay temporarily decreases or increases your insurance contributions for one calendar year at a time.

Flex pay is possible if:

Your YEL insurance policy is valid for the entire year in the same pension company
There are no outstanding payments on your YEL insurance policy
You are not yet receiving employment pension from Finland
You are not receiving the discount for a starting entrepreneur.

You can pay an additional contribution every year, if you want, but you can only decrease your contribution, at the most, three times within a seven-year period. The combined total of the additional contribution and your YEL insurance contribution must not exceed the maximum for YEL income 204,625.00 euro in 2024.

Additional contributions are tax deductible either for the company or the entrepreneur, as determined by the payer information submitted to the pension company.

Flex pay only concerns the YEL income that serves as the basis for your future pension, it does not affect other social benefits, such as the sickness allowance, that are determined in accordance with the confirmed YEL income based on work input.

Check the flex pay amount and fill out a flex pay application in Elo’s Online Service.