Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Social Security Agreement between India and Germany

Well, I did already in my one of the previous posts (India Pens Social Security Agreements), specified that India signed Social Security Agreement with Germany on October 8, 2008. This agreement is already in force from 1st October 2009 and EPFO India has already updated with the agreement details which I shall be briefing here.

The Social Security Agreement shall protect the interests of all those employees sent from Indian-based companies to their subsidiaries in Germany or those being sent by the German companies to their Indian subsidiaries on short-term contracts of 48 months with the possibility of extension by securing exemption from social security contribution in their host country. Thus these employees will only be subjected to the social security contributions in their home country.
The features and benefits of the Social Security Agreement:
- Detachment: The current agreement covers only the detachment provision which means the exemption from the social security contributions of the host country for the employees sent on posting provided the employee is making compulsory social contributions in the home country.
Eligibility for Detachment:
Indian National Working in Germany
Nature of Employment
Coverage
Short-term Posting by an Indian Employer for a period of less than 48 months                  Indian System
Long-term Posting by an Indian Employer for a period of more than 48 months                  German System
Indian Employer hiring an Indian employee in Germany                 German System
Indian Employer hiring a Non-Indian Employee in Germany                German System
German Resident Working in India
Nature of Employment
Coverage
Short-term Posting by a German Employer for a period of less than 48months                 German System
Long-term Posting by a German Employer for a period of more than 48months                 Indian System
German Employer hiring an Indian Employee in India                Indian System
German Employer hiring a non-Indian Employee in India                Indian System
Detachment Certificate: Detachment Certificate issued by the home country indicating the details of membership and coverage of the social security system needs to be accrued by the employee or employer on behalf of the employee being posted as a proof of exemption from the social security contributions in the host nation.
Period: The maximum period of detachment certificate is 48 months which shall be extended by 12 more months upon the request.
Eligibility for Detachment Certificate:
- employees who shall be posted to Germany on or after 1st October 2009 should apply for Detachment Certificate.
- those employees who are already posted in Germany or already working in Germany shall apply for Detachment Certificate from 1st October 2009 till the end of detachment.
Accruing Detachment Certificate:
EPFO, India:
Employer and Employee who is being posted to Germany needs to make a joint request to obtain the Detachment Certificate from EPFO (Employee Provident Fund Organisation), India. The application form can be downloaded from here.
The Liaison Agencies in Germany are:
Deutsche Verbindungsstelle Krankenversicherung – Ausland (DVKA)) 
The application for obtaining Detachment Certificate in Germany:
Please be noted that the social security agreement signed by India with Germany is limited only for Posting. The complete and elaborate social security agreements (Details at Social Security Agreements with Germany) which are more similar to other Contracting Nations is yet to be finalized between the two nations.

4 comments:

  1. Your site is really informative. I have bookmarked your site to my favorites.

    www.elegantandchic.com/blog

    ReplyDelete
  2. Interesting agreement. Hope people from both the countries get to reap the benefits towards their brighter future :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds grt for both country strong aggreement

    http://wondersofplanet.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Seema, thank for the informative article. If I may ask on your inputs on my specific case,
    I have been posted by my Indian company to work for their German branch operations in Frankfurt since August 2008. I have paid a good amount of money towards social security contributions till date. Now I am planning on returning back to India, can you please share any thoughts on how I need to apply for a refund of this contributions.
    I will be here for another month that is ending Feb 2011, so if there any papers work that needs to be done local. You can mail me at dilip.george@gmail.com
    Thank you for the help in advance.
    Regards
    Dilip George

    ReplyDelete