As soon as you employ the first person who is subject to compulsory insurance, you must apply for a company number for the company where the person is employed.
The company number is usually assigned by the Federal Employment Agency upon electronic application. A customer data record is created for you in which your company master data is registered. Based on the company number, the social insurance agencies can then assign the notifications to the health, pension and unemployment insurance to your employment company.
One or more company numbers?
- If you are an employer of a company with only one location, you only need one company number.
- You will need several establishment numbers if you have establishments in several municipalities.
- You also need several company numbers if you are the owner of several companies in the same municipality, each of which is an independent economic unit.
Headquarters abroad
If you are an employer based abroad, you may need a company number - if you have to report workers employed in Germany to the German social security system. This could be, for example, sales employees or customer service representatives working in a home office.
Special rules for private households, miners and maritime companies
- You want to employ someone in your private household on a marginal scale (mini-job): Please contact the Minijob-Zentrale of the German Pension Insurance Knappschaft-Bahn-See.
- You are a miners' company (extraction of minerals, e.g. coal), you employ staff in a miners' company or you employ workers who perform miners' work in mines or who are deployed for rehabilitation work in opencast mines: Please contact the German Pension Insurance Knappschaft-Bahn-See.
- You are a maritime worker (including coastal fishermen and coastal skippers): Please contact the German Pension Insurance Knappschaft-Bahn-See.