Trade Association Accident Insurance

Statutory trade association accident insurance is an . As an entrepreneur, you are in principle If this is not the case in your individual situation, voluntary insurance is recommended. How contribution amounts are calculated depends upon whether you are compulsorily or voluntarily insured. To register for insurance, you should inform the responsible trade association of your business registration. You can find the responsible trade association on the statutory accident insurer’s website. must be communicated to your trade association immediately.

Contactinformation of the Social Accident Insurance Institutions in germany you can find in the box on the right site under "external links" or here.

Statutory accident insurance is an employer’s liability insurance. Following an accident at work or occupational illness, it is designed to compensate the injured person, their relatives and their surviving dependants.The aim of this compensation is

Compensation takes the form of money and payment in kind. Examples of services offered include rehabilitation measures and the payment of injury benefit, interim payments, pensions, subsidies and settlements.The insurance protection covers the consequences of an accident at work, occupational illness and accidents directly on the way to and from work.Since 1 January 1997, the legal basis for statutory accident insurance has been Volume 7 of the German Social Code (SGB VII). Previously it was the Social Insurance Code of the German Reich (RVO).There are nine trade associations providing accident insurance in the commercial sector. They are divided by industry branch. To ascertain to which trade association you belong, visit the statutory accident insurer’s website.

As an independent entrepreneur with no employees, you will not always be subject to mandatory insurance. 5 of the 9 trade associations view such individuals as being subject to mandatory insurance. For the other trade associations, you can obtain voluntary insurance for you and your assisting spouse provided that said spouse does not draw a salary and is therefore not subject to mandatory insurance.

Voluntary insurance is useful because it offers comprehensive insurance cover for relatively low annual contributions. Those with voluntary insurance have an advantage over those with mandatory insurance in that they can generally choose their own insurance sum up to the statutory upper limit.

Your insurance sum should be determined by your actual income. It is the basis of calculation for the level of payout you would receive from the insurance.

As a freelancer you can also obtain voluntary insurance from the trade association responsible for your industry sector. If there is no trade association available for your sector, then the administrative trade association provides the insurance.

Those subject to statutory insurance include all employees with an employment relationship, service relationship or apprenticeship. Your level of income is irrelevant. In addition, home workers, intermediaries, home tradesmen and assisting spouses who draw a salary are also subject to insurance under the law.

You should inform the responsible trade association of your business registration, even if it is common practice for the trade licensing office to send them your business registration and put your trade association in contact with you.

Note: It is a good idea to inform the responsible trade association within a week for new business start-ups. You can find out which trade association is responsible for you on the statutory accident insurer’s website at www.dguv.de.

Even if you do not register, your employees are still subject to mandatory insurance. If you and your company are not registered with your trade association, you should expect to be charged retroactive supplementary contributions dating back to the day your company was founded.

Caution: The trade association’s claim to contributions only lapses four years from the end of the calendar year in which this took place. Contributions intentionally not paid can be claimed by the trade association as far as up to 30 years following being due!

If you would like to obtain voluntary accident insurance, you should apply to the trade association.

Statutory accident insurance is exclusively financed by the contributions paid by entrepreneurs. The trade association sends you a contribution assessment at the end of the year.

If you are subject to mandatory insurance, your contributions are calculated from the wage bill of those insured and the hazard class assigned to your company. This is in turn dependent on the number and severity of accidents at work occurring in the individual industry sectors.

You only have to provide your trade association with your total wage bill at the end of the year or the beginning of the next year, i.e. not every new appointment or dismissal of an employee has to be communicated.

If you have voluntary insurance, your contribution is calculated using the factors of insurance sum, industry-specific hazard class and cost splitting coefficient. The calculation formula is as follows:

Insurance sum x hazard class x contribution coefficient 1000 Information about hazard classes and cost splitting coefficients for the past insurance year can be obtained from your trade association. Due to the cost splitting system, contributions for the current year have not yet been set. However, major deviations from the previous year’s values only occur in exceptional cases.

All accidents at work must be communicated to your trade association immediately. There is a statutory form for the purpose (notice of accident). You can obtain the form from your trade association or in stationery stores.