Self-employed person’s reported income

You determine your annual reported income when you arrange pension insurance for self-employed persons under YEL (Self-Employed Persons' Pensions Act) or MYEL (Farmers' Pensions Act) for yourself. In addition to your pension, this income affects the amount of the benefits provided by Kela and your entitlement to unemployment allowance.

Income limits under YEL and MYEL in 2024

The lower limit for the reported income under YEL is 9,010,28 euros per year.
The lower limit for the reported income under MYEL is 4,505,14 euros per year.
The minimum level of reported income required for entitlement to unemployment allowance is 14,803 euros per year.

Reported income and daily allowances

Kela calculates the amount of daily allowances on the basis of the annual income, i.e. for a reference period of 12 calendar months. For self-employed persons, the annual income is equivalent to the reported income subject to YEL (Self-Employed Persons' Pensions Act) or MYEL (Farmers' Pensions Act) insurance. The reported income under the YEL or MYEL pension insurance schemes determines the amount of the following benefits:

allowances for parents
sickness allowance
rehabilitation allowance.

Wage income from your own business or income from self-employment are not included in the annual income. If the reported income under the YEL or MYEL pension insurance schemes is small, Kela pays the benefit to the minimum amount. If the reported income under the YEL or MYEL pension insurance schemes has changed during the reference period, Kela will calculate the benefit on the basis of the average reported income.

Example

Liisa is a self-employed person. She falls ill, and the doctor confirms that she is incapable of work starting from 15 February 2021.

Liisa applies for sickness allowance from Kela. Kela calculates the sickness allowance on the basis of Liisa’s annual reported income. The reported income in Liisa’s insurance policy under YEL is 20,000 euros per year. The 12-month reference period is 1 January–31 December 2020.

Liisa gets an estimated 46 euros per working day in sickness allowance.

With the help of the benefit calculators you can estimate the amount of benefits provided by Kela.

Verifying incomes

The reported income under the YEL or MYEL pension insurance schemes is reported to Kela directly by the relevant pension provider. You need not report them to Kela.

If you have wage incomes from some other source than your own business in addition to the reported income under the YEL or MYEL pension insurance schemes, Kela receives information on these incomes from the national incomes register. Kela uses this data when processing claims and applications. You will be contacted if additional information is required.

Income from self-employment

Some Kela benefits are affected by other incomes than the reported income under the YEL or MYEL pension insurance schemes. For instance the care supplement in the child home care allowance and the social assistance (income support) are affected by your actual income from self-employment. The application form for each benefit explains for which incomes you have to provide documentation to Kela.