No personal code, longer stay: DOB registration extended; PPA and KORKS duties

An employer registers every worker whose work creates a tax liability in EstoniaEmta, recording the start, suspension, end and type of the work. Where the worker has no Estonian personal code, registration for work of up to five days is made with the worker's birth date and name as shown in the identity documentEmta.

Work lasting longer than five days requires the worker to obtain an Estonian personal code before startingEmta. Where the worker has no code and cannot obtain one before starting for objective reasons, the employer may still register the work with birth date and nameEmta. Once the code is issued, the entry's validity is extended by converting the birth-date entry into a code entryEmta; no new entry is started. Where several five-day birth-date entries exist for the same person, the employer converts the first and cancels the later ones, and the start date transmitted to other agencies is the date of the first, birth-date entry.

Repeated five-day birth-date registration is not correct where the underlying agreement is in fact continuous beyond five daysEmta. Birth-date entries carry no social guarantees for the workerEmta; statutory guarantees arise once the entry is converted to a personal-code entry. Work may not be registered with the non-resident code issued by the Tax and Customs Board at allEmta – that code serves payout declarations. Citizens of the European Union, the European Economic Area and Switzerland who settle in Estonia permanently apply for a code together with the residence notice at the local government of the place of residence, in person; others apply at the nearest county-centre local government or at an Estonian representation abroad.

An employer notifies the Police and Border Guard Board of a foreigner starting work, of a short-term-registered foreigner with whom no employment contract is concluded, of a foreigner failing to start work, of changes to the work conditions set in a fixed-term residence permit, of early termination of the underlying contract, and of the actual end of the workEmta. No separate notice is needed for data the employer has already registered in the employment register. A research and development institution immediately notifies the Board of termination of a hosting agreement concluded with a foreigner.

Since 1 October 2026 the markings for defence and crisis posts rest on the Crisis and National Defence ActEmta. Persons in crisis-task posts under §107 add the corresponding note in the registerEmta, and only crisis-task persons may mark such workEmta; where the crisis task does not stem directly from the act, the register receives the assignment information from the civil-support register (TTR). A vital-service provider adds the note on the background-check duty for persons performing tasks essential to service continuity under §85Emta; the check queries standing criminal-record data to ensure the reliability of those persons.

Legal basis: Maksukorralduse seadus §§ 251, 252 and 254 for the register and the data it carries, Välismaalaste seadus §§ 285 and 286 for the notification and verification duties, and Kriisiolukorra ja riigikaitse seadus §§ 85, 107 and 286 for the background-check and crisis-post markings and the act's 1 October 2026 entry into force, as reflected in the Maksu- ja Tolliamet employment-register guidance on Töötamise registreerimine.