One of the main responsibilities of employers in accordance with the Turkish Social Security Law, is to pay social insurance premiums to the Social Security Institution.
Accordingly, employers who employ insured people within the scope of the subparagraph (a) of the first paragraph of the Article 4 of the Act No. 5510, shall deduct the premium amounts for the insured share, which will be calculated based on the premium-based earnings of the insured employees they employ within a month, from the wages of the insured, and add the premium amounts corresponding to their own shares to these amounts, and to pay the total amount to the Social Security Institution at the latest by the end the following month or period.
If the last day of the payment period coincides with a public holiday, the premium amounts are required to be paid to the Social Security Institution within the first business day following the end of the public holiday at the latest.
Social insurance premiums for those who are considered insured within the scope of the subparagraph (a) of the first paragraph of the Article 4 of the Act No. 5510 should be paid to the Social Security Insitutiton within the following periods considered:
- For insured people who receive wages for their work between the 1st and 30th of the month, the payment time is until the last day of the month following the month to which the work relates.
- For insured individuals who receive wages for their work between the 15th of the month and the 14th of the following month, the payment time is no later than the 14th of the calendar month following the period to which the work relates.
The premiums not paid within these legal periods are being subjected to the delay penalty and late payment interests as stipulated in the second paragraph of the Article 89 of the Act No. 5510. If the premiums and other receivables of the Social Security Institution are not paid within the due date and in full, the unpaid portion will be increased by applying a delay penalty of 2% for each month in the first three months from the date of expiry of the period. In addition, the late payment interest is calculated by applying the monthly average interest of the State domestic debt securities issued at a discount in New Turkish Lira for the previous month, which will be announced separately for each month by the Undersecretariat of Treasury, to the amounts found for each month, on a compound basis, starting from the date of the end of the payment period until the debt is paid. However, late payment interest is calculated daily for the month in which the payment is made.
The below examples are showing the implementation details of the premium payment responsibility of employers:
Example: Private (A) Limited Company is required to pay the premiums of the insured people it employed in 2020/January on Monday, 2/3/2020, since the date of 29/2/2020 falls on a Saturday and the date of 1/3/2020 falls on a Sunday. The same company is required to pay the premiums of the insured employees employed in February 2020 until 31/3/2020 at the latest.
Example: Official (B) Public Institution which has deducted the premiums of the insured people employed in the period 15/10/2019 – 14/11/2019 is required to pay the premiums to the Social Security Institution as of 16/12/2019 at the latest, due to the fact that the date of 14/12/2019 is falling on a Saturday and the date of 15/12/2019 is falling on a Sunday. The public institution is required to pay the premiums of the insured employees it employed in the period 15/12/2019-14/1/2020 until 14/2/2020 at the latest.
As to be an exemptional case, according to the provisions of the Act No. 5510, Turkish employers who employ permanent workers in Libya are required to add the insurance premiums they will deduct from the insured for each month to their own premium amounts and pay them within three months following the relevant month at the latest.
Example: For employers employing permanent workers in Libya, the insurance premium for 2021/January must be paid by 30/04/2021 at the latest, and if the premiums in question are not paid on time, the delay penalty and delay interest stipulated in the second paragraph of the Article 89 of the ActNo. 5510 will be applied to the unpaid premiums.
