Use the YEL calculator on Tyoelake.fi to calculate the confirmed income from self-employment
When starting working as a self-employed person, the confirmed income for insurance under the Self-employed Persons’ Pensions Act (YEL) can be estimated using the calculator on Tyoelake.fi. The calculator as part of the instructions on confirmed income is also a useful tool when guiding self-employed people. The calculator is open to all and requires no login. It is available in English, Finnish and Swedish.
The confirmed YEL income forms the basis of a self-employed person’s YEL insurance and other social security. Both the pension amount and pension contributions depend on the amount of the confirmed income. In addition, the confirmed income affects the self-employed person’s unemployment allowance and income during parental leaves. Under law, the YEL income must correspond to the work input of the self-employed person and the wage that would be paid to a person with similar qualifications who was hired to do the work of the self-employed person.
Calculator helps assess work input
The calculator in Tyoelake.fi recommends the self-employed person’s confirmed income and its flexibility (+/- 30%). The recommendation is based on the average wage of the industry selected and the turnover estimated by the user of the calculator. The calculator automatically utilises industry-specific wage data. It uses the information on turnover to estimate the scope of the self-employment.
Confirming the income is always the responsibility of the pension provider or the industry-wide pension fund selected by the self-employed person. When confirming the income from self-employment, the pension provider also considers other available data depicting the self-employed person’s work input, scope of self-employment, professional skills and value of work input.
The calculator uses the same computing service for the confirmed income recommendation as the pension providers handling the earnings-related pension insuring of self-employed persons that pension providers have used since August-September 2022. The computing service and other instructions on the confirmed income replaced the guides on income from self-employment maintained by the Finnish Centre for Pensions. The computing service will be improved based on user experience and the reform of the Self-employed Persons’ Pensions Act. However, the reform that took effect on 1 January 2023 does not immediately lead to changes in the operations of the calculator.
Check out the calculator and get a recommendation for the YEL income
Confirmed income – what is it?
The confirmed YEL income is the monetary value of the self-employed person’s work input. The confirmed income should correspond to the wage that would pay to a person hired to do the work of a self-employed person.
In addition to the pension amount, the self-employed person’s daily allowance under health insurance and the compensation under the voluntary worker’s occupational insurance are determined based on the confirmed annual income. In addition, the confirmed income affects the self-employed person’s unemployment allowance and income during parental leaves.
Read more about determining the confirmed income at Tyoelake.fi
Take out pension insurance from an earnings-related pension insurance company of your own choice (or an industry-wide pension fund if there is one in your industry).
Contact information of earnings-related pension companies in Tyoelake.fi
Photo: Katri Lehtola
