A new fantastic source for updating the Statistical Business Register eIncome – collecting data on Local Units and employment for the Business Register A new fantastic source for updating the Statistical Business Register The implementation of a more efficient way of collecting Data 29-30 Juni 2009

1a. Background of the project - today Quarterly employment statistics at enterprise level, estimated on the basis of total payment of ATP amounts (Danish supplementary pension scheme) of the enterprise Data are received quarterly from the ATP authority Man-years are published 3 months after the end of the quarter Linked to the enterprise in the Business Register Annual employment statistics at LKAU level, estimated on the basis of personal payment of ATP amounts and the number of employees in November Data are received annually from the tax authorities 3 employment figures are published 15 months after the end of the reference year Linked to the enterprise as well as the LKAU

1b. Background to the project – in the future New legislation – New opportunities Legally required monthly data reporting at LKAU level – eIncome New opportunities: More details than previously E.g. paid out salaries Indication of hours worked as supplement to (or in replacement) of ATP Better data on periodicity Data quickly available At the latest 2 days after the end of the month data providers have to report At the moment data reports are received once every week From 2011 we will receive data reports daily from tax authorities Data can be corrected at the end of the year + once every month Earlier quality assurance (validation and editing) Ensures higher quality for all business statistics More timely and more accurate statistics Possibility of employment statistics by region Possibility of turnover statistics by region Only one source for employment statistics ensures better consistency between short-term and structural statistics Provisional figures one month after the reference period Better basis for stratification of samples and grossing-up of figures within business statistics due to more timely information

The new data base Who and what is included All types of income subject to taxation in Denmark wages, salaries, social benefits, current pension payments Identification variables payers (employers, pension payers, social benefit payers – identified by means of legal unit no. and LKAU no.), employees/recipients (identified by means of the cpr no.) Other important variables hours worked, atp amount, type of income, data reporting period

The new data base - How much and how often? SD receives about 12 million records every month Reported by about 200,000 employers/payers Our project relates to: The 5 million records that relate to paid employees Which relate to about 5 million jobs

Basis for cooperation - The Act on Statistics Denmark Public authorities are liable to consult SD when they set up new registers or survey businesses This implies that SD: is involved already in the early phase of the planning is able to influence the set-up and can ensure that statistical considerations are taken into account Concerning eIncome SD achieved to adjust the rules with regard to whether the employee is working at the address of the workplace or not – but not sufficiently satisfactory for us SD cannot report validated/edited data back to the tax authorities (data can only be used for statistics)

Cooperation – external data supplies Written agreement between the tax authorities and SD that they must supply SD with data SD does not pay for the data The format is decided by the tax authorities SD contacts the enterprises, if there are any errors – The errors must be corrected by the enterprises themselves in eIncome, i.e. in the data reported to the tax authorities The quality is evaluated at meetings between the tax authorities and SD, enabling the tax authorities to improving the quality in a systematic way – if they have the resources …

Cooperation - Internal Joint data validation at DS In order to use the least possible resources all data checking at SD is carried out jointly Logical errors Data are validated in order to find logical errors and corrections in previous data reports Statistical identification variables are added to the administrative data Primary data for business statistics (LKAU) are subject to data validation in the Department for Business Statistics Error checking is changed from being statistically-oriented to being focused on the Business Register Primary data for employment and social statistics are validated in the Department for Social Statistics The attention of error checking is focused on data in published statistics The results from data validation are entered in the joint data bases

Operating plan Day t + 1-7 Day t + 8-16 and t + 19-35 Data are received Logical data validation Split-up records for employees and others, respectively Employees are compressed for monthly data reporting by payer and payee BR-identification-numbers are added to employees’ records Creation of the first monthly version of eIncome statistical database Day t + 8-16 and t + 19-35 Data validation in selected segments of enterprises in the department for Business Statistics Data validation in selected units in the department for Social Statistics Day t + 18 – Creation of the second monthly version Day t + 30 – Supplementary corrections from the tax authorities are entered Day t + 36 – Creation of the third monthly version (t = day of delivery from tax; 5 days after end of reference month)

Differentiated data validation Compressed records (by person) is a precondition of data validation LKAU identification numbers that are used incorrectly must be corrected contact is only made to enterprise when errors are found for the first time All LKAU units are subject to computerized data validation for automatically takeover/split-up every month in order to follow the units over time This is carried out by checking whether groups of employees have changed employer: Merger, takeover Split-up, break-up Focus is changed from checks at workplace level to checks on level of persons All units cannot be subject to error checking Priority-setting of important units Enterprises > 200 employees or 20 workplaces are subject to validation every month Enterprises > 50 employees are subject to validation every quarter Other enterprises are subject to validation once every year Enterprises found in connection with macro checks in the department for Social Statistics Selection for validation only implies that the unit is subject to checking and not necessarily manual treatment Checking change in activity code Checking change in size Checking commuting patterns A distinction is not made between public or private employer

Frozen versions Enables the statistics to be compared via: common date for “freezing” monthly, quarterly and annual versions of: SD’s eIncome register SD’s Data Base of Social Statistics SD’s Statistical Business Register common identification variables for, e.g. LKAU address, address of residence common background variables, e.g. industry, type of income