Leistungen A-Z

Forms available: No
Written form required: No
Informal application possible: No
Personal appearance required: No
Online services available: Yes

As soon as you employ the first person subject to compulsory insurance, you must apply for a company number for the employment company in which the person works.

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 security institutions can then assign the reports to the health, pension and unemployment insurance to your employing company.

One or more car numbers?

• As an employer of a company with only one location, you only need one company number.
• You will need several company numbers if you have branches in several municipalities.
• You will also need several company numbers if you are the owner or owner of several companies in the same community, each of which forms independent economic units.

Registered office abroad

If you are an employer based abroad, you may need a company number – if you have to register workers employed in Germany with the German social security system. These can be, for example, sales staff or customer advisors in the home office.

Special rules for private households, miners' businesses and maritime enterprises

• If you want to employ someone in your private household on a minor scale (mini-job): Please contact the mini-job center of the German Pension Insurance Knappschaft-Bahn-See.
• You are a miner's company (extraction of minerals, for example coal), employ employees in a miners' company or employ workers who carry out miners' work on mines or are employed for rehabilitation work in opencast mining: Please contact the German Pension Insurance Knappschaft-Bahn-See.
• You are a shipping company (including coastal fishermen and coastal boatmen): Please contact the German Pension Insurance Knappschaft-Bahn-See.

For the first time, you are hiring an employee subject to compulsory insurance in the relevant employment company.

You must provide the following minimum information:

• the designation used by the employing company in legal transactions, including any legal form additions that may be present,
• Sole proprietorship / partnership under civil law: the first and last name of the owner or partners,
• Sole proprietorship not entered in the commercial register: first and last name of the employer,
• Private household: name and surname of the head of household,
• the address of employment, i.e. the current address of the employing company under which the employees actually work,
• if necessary, a different address to be used for postal delivery,
• additional communication channels such as telephone number, fax or e-mail address,
• economic centre of gravity of the employing company,
• Contact person (name, function, telephone number) for queries about the reporting procedure - this can also be contact details of a commissioned service provider, for example a tax consultancy,
• if another employer within the company registers the employees for social security: the name, address and company number of this office.

As a rule, however, the company number service of the Federal Employment Agency does not require written evidence to process your application.

None

Please apply for your company number electronically. You can submit the application yourself or commission someone else to do so, for example a tax advisor.

• Access the online application on the website of the Federal Employment Agency.
• Answer the introductory questions in the selection fields and follow the online form through the rest of the application process.
• In most cases, the company number is assigned and displayed immediately.
• In addition, the employer receives a postal confirmation of the company number and the stored master data.

Note: If there are changes in the master data or the company closes, you must immediately report this electronically to the Federal Employment Agency. As a rule, your payroll accounting software automatically triggers a corresponding notification to the Federal Employment Agency as soon as you enter the corresponding changes in the master data.

Special rule for companies subject to immediate reporting: If your company belongs to one of the following industries, you will need the company number for a report at the latest at the time when the first employee starts work:

• Building trade
• food and restaurant and accommodation industry,
• passenger transport industry,
• freight forwarding, transport and related logistics industry,
• fairground trade,
• Forestry
• building cleaning industry,
• companies involved in the construction and dismantling of trade fairs and exhibitions,
• Meat industry
• prostitution trade,
• Guarding and security industry

• § 18i Fourth Book of the Social Code (SGB IV)
• § 18k Fourth Book of the Social Code (SGB IV)
• § 18l Fourth Book of the Social Code (SGB IV)
• § 18m Fourth Book of the Social Code (SGB IV)
• § 18n Fourth Book of the Social Code (SGB IV)
• § 28a of the Fourth Book of the Social Code (SGB IV)

In the social security notifications, please always use the company number of the employment company in which the worker concerned actually works. If there are any changes to the company master data provided at the time of application, please send the correct information to the Federal Employment Agency electronically without delay. Incorrect use of company numbers or delayed/omitted notifications of changes may constitute an administrative offense.

• Social Security Information Portal for Employers
• Information about the company number on the website of the Federal Employment Agency
• Leaflet of the Federal Employment Agency on the principles of assigning a company number
• Leaflet of the Federal Employment Agency on the decision-making scheme for the allocation of company numbers
• Handbook of the Federal Employment Agency on electronic change notifications

Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS)