town hall
Procedure descriptions

Social insurance - having compulsory insurance determined (status determination)

Under social security law, your gainful employment may be self-employment or dependent employment.

If there is any doubt about the categorisation, employers or employees can apply for a status determination procedure. This creates legal certainty for the parties involved as to whether they are self-employed or employed.

Responsible department

the clearing centre of the German Federal Pension Insurance

Details

Prerequisite

  • It is unclear whether the activity or employment is subject to social insurance contributions.
  • You are employed, self-employed, employer or client

Procedure

You must submit a written application. You can obtain the relevant form from your pension insurance provider or you can download it from the Internet.

Only the parties involved can apply for a status determination. These are

  • the client
  • the contractor
  • the employer and
  • the employee.

The parties involved can apply for the procedure jointly or individually. They do not have to agree on the assessment of the gainful employment.

If the application is submitted by only one of the parties involved, the other party is automatically included in the administrative procedure.

You should answer the questions posed in the application in full and send the documents requested there at the same time. You must describe the activity and its circumstances in detail, especially if you have not concluded any written contracts.

Both parties will receive a binding decision on the status of the labour force in the form of a notification. If a dependent employment relationship subject to compulsory insurance is established, this results in compulsory insurance in all branches of social insurance. Under certain circumstances, this insurance obligation does not begin at the start of employment (possibly retroactively), but only at a later date.

The enquiry procedure at the clearing office does not apply if a health insurance fund has already carried out or initiated a procedure to determine the status of the employee, for example in connection with a decision on voluntary insurance, or if the status has already been checked by a pension insurance institution as part of a company audit.

Deadlines

Submit the application within one month of starting work.

Required documents

You must enclose copies of all contracts relating to the existing contractual relationship with the application, for example the contract for work as a freelancer or commercial agent, fee contract, apprenticeship contract. You must also enclose any existing additional agreements, amendment agreements or supplementary agreements.

Costs

There are no costs or fees during the enquiry process.

Processing time

The processing time depends on the individual case and cannot be estimated in advance.

Miscellaneous

Without you having to apply for this, the collection agency will initiate a procedure to decide on the existence of an employment relationship (mandatory status determination procedure) in the following cases:

  • The employer prepares notifications for
    • the husband, wife, registered partner or civil partner
    • children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren working for the employer or
    • managing partners of a limited liability company (GmbH).

You will receive a notification once the procedure has been completed.

Detailed information

The clearing house provides information by telephone. Service telephone: 030 865 97405 or 0800 1000 480 70.

Legal basis

Sozialgesetzbuch Viertes Buch (SGB IV):

  • § 7a Anfrageverfahren
  • § 28a Meldepflicht

Release note

machine generated, based on the German release by: Deutsche Rentenversicherung, 13.02.2025

Contact

Bürger- und Standesamt (Bürgeramt)
Grabenstraße 9
89522 Heidenheim an der Brenz
Fax (0 73 21) 3 23-33 32