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The Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Sw: Försäkringskassan) has announced that additional working days from home in Sweden due to COVID-19 will not affect multi-state employees’ social insurance cover in the EU.

Background

A person who normally works as employed in two or more EU Member States is subject to the social security legislation of the Member State in which he or she resides if he or she carries out a substantial part of his or her work in that Member State. "A significant part of work" means at least 25% of working time and/or income. This is the so-called multi-state rule in Article 13 (1) EU Regulation 883/2004. The regulation governs which country's social insurance an employee should be covered by.

Those who are resident in Sweden and normally work less than 25% in Sweden may instead be covered by another EU country's social insurance. The Swedish Social Insurance Agency has now announced that working days from home in Sweden, due to COVID-19, should not be counted as working days in Sweden when applying the multi-state rule.

This can be illustrated by the following example. A person, who lives in Sweden but normally works 82% in Germany and 18% in Sweden, is covered by German social insurance. Therefore, the employer does not have to pay Swedish employer contributions based on the salary. If the employee starts working from home to such an extent that the working time in Sweden exceeds 25%, the employee should normally instead be covered by Swedish social insurance, with a requirement for the employer to report as employer and pay Swedish employer contributions. The Swedish Social Insurance Agency has now confirmed that it will ignore such additional working days in Sweden if they are attributable to COVID-19. The person in our example will still be considered to work only 18% in Sweden and can therefore remain covered by German social insurance.

KPMG Comments

We anticipate that employers with staff who live in Sweden, but are covered by another EU country's social insurance, will need to verify and document that additional home working days in Sweden are attributable to COVID-19 in order to benefit from the exemption. KPMG can guide you as an employer on how to follow this up and how documentation can be handled effectively. If you have any questions or concerns, you are most welcome to contact us.

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The article in Swedish