HR-Glossar
Jahresmeldung (annual social security report)
What the annual social security report contains, when it is due, when it falls away and why its figure differs from the annual payroll tax record.
1. What is Jahresmeldung (annual social security report)?
The Jahresmeldung is a DEÜV report under Section 28a(2) SGB IV by which the employer reports, for every employee subject to social security, the pay subject to contributions for the completed calendar year.
Under Section 10 DEÜV it must be filed by 15 February of the following year – to the collection agency, as a rule the health insurance fund. From there the data flow into the employee's pension account.
It is therefore the report with the longest reach in the whole procedure: earnings points arise from it, and decades later a pension arises from earnings points. A wrong or missing annual report is often noticed only when it can barely still be corrected.
It falls away where a deregistration with the corresponding pay has already been filed for the same year – for instance where someone left during the year. Duplicate reports for the same period are to be avoided.
2. Origin and development
The annual report is as old as the electronic reporting procedure and replaced the earlier collective paper report. Its purpose is unchanged: it closes the insurance year and supplies the institutions with the assessment base.
As pension statements have been expanded, it has taken on additional weight. Employees today regularly see what was reported for them – and gaps surface earlier than in the days when the first look at the pension account came shortly before retirement.
3. Core principles and how it works
One report per person and year
One report per employment relationship and calendar year – unless a deregistration already covers the same period.
Pay subject to contributions, not gross pay
What is reported is the contribution assessment base, capped by the contribution ceiling. It regularly differs from taxable gross pay, and that difference is the point most often got wrong in a group-wide reconciliation.
The 15 February deadline
It coincides with other year-end work and is therefore readily pushed back.
Correction by cancellation and refiling
A wrong annual report is cancelled and filed again correctly – not overwritten.
The basis of the pension entitlement
What is reported here determines the earnings points. That is why care pays off more here than on any other report.
4. Who is Jahresmeldung (annual social security report) relevant for?
- All employers – the duty applies to every employment subject to social security.
- Payroll teams – the annual report is part of payroll's year-end close.
- Employees – their pension entitlement depends on it.
- Pension insurance auditors – they reconcile reports against contributions.
5. How it differs from related terms
- Annual report and annual payroll tax record – two filings to two different recipients, with different assessment bases and deadlines. - Annual report and deregistration – the deregistration covers the period up to leaving; the annual report for that year then falls away. - Annual report and contribution statement – the statement reports totals monthly, the annual report the annual pay per person. - Annual report and accident insurance annual report – the filing to the accident insurer follows a procedure of its own.
6. Variants and adaptations
- Regular annual report – for people employed throughout. - No report where someone left during the year – the deregistration takes its place. - Annual report for marginal employees – to the Minijob-Zentrale. - Special reports – a change of contribution group or collection agency during the year can produce several reports.
7. Advantages and challenges
Advantages
- A clear year-end close per person, generated by machine
- The basis for traceable pension entitlements
- Employees can check it against their pension statement
- A single deadline for every employer
Challenges
- The deadline falls in the densest part of the year anyway
- Errors work through for decades and surface late
- Duplicate reports arise easily where someone left during the year
- The assessment base differing from the annual payroll tax record regularly causes confusion
8. Best practices for implementation
Plan the year-end as a process of its own
Annual reports, annual payroll tax records and new calculation parameters coincide. A fixed schedule prevents one of them being squeezed out.
Check leavers against annual reports
Where a deregistration covers the period, no annual report may follow.
Work through the responses
Error responses from the collection agency belong resolved at once, not next year.
Sanity-check the annual figures
Reconciling the reported annual pay against the payroll journal finds outliers before they land in the pension account – and reconciling it against the taxable gross finds the wrong base.
9. Tips for employers and employees
For employers
- **Fix the 15 February deadline in the plan** – it comes shortly after year-end and collides with other closing work
- **No duplicate report after someone leaves** – the deregistration already covers the period
- **Resolve error responses at once** – an unhandled response means a missing report
For employees
- **Keep the reporting certificate** – it shows what was reported for you
- **Check your pension statement** – gaps can be resolved while the records are still to hand
- **With several employers, check every report** – each one counts separately
10. Conclusion
The annual report is a short filing with the longest effect in the whole procedure: earnings points arise from it, and decades later a pension. Its pitfalls are few and always the same – the mid-February deadline in the middle of the year-end close, the duplicate report after someone leaves during the year, and the confusion with the annual payroll tax record, which has a different assessment base.
That last point deserves separating out for an international group. The annual report states pay subject to contributions, capped by the contribution ceiling; the tax record states taxable pay. The two figures are not meant to match, and a group-wide reconciliation that expects one "annual gross" per employee will report the wrong number to one of the two recipients.
Whoever plans the year-end as a process of its own and works through the responses at once has this report under control.
A note on sources: there is no official English version of SGB IV, the DEÜV or SGB VI; the German texts are cited below.
Sources
- Section 28a SGB IV – Duty to report (German original; no official English version) (opens in a new tab)
- Section 10 DEÜV – Annual report (German original) (opens in a new tab)
- Section 63 SGB VI – Principles of pension calculation (German original) (opens in a new tab)
Related terms
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