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Family member of an entrepreneur

In principle, it does not matter whether your family member is an entrepreneur or not. However, if you work for a company of a family member and you yourself have any ownership in that company, you can be an entrepreneur in unemployment security. In turn, entrepreneurship can affect your unemployment security in different ways.

Family member

You are a family member of

  • your spouse and
  • to a person who is directly related to you in the ascending or descending line and lives with you in the same household

A spouse is a person who is your spouse or with whom you otherwise live together in marriage-like circumstances.

If you are married, we will define you and your spouse as family members, even if you live separately. However, if living apart is due to a break-up between you, we do not define you as family members.

We also define grandchildren, children, parents and grandparents as family members if they live in the same household with you.

We receive information about housing arrangements from the Population Register. If the information in the Population Register does not correspond to reality, you can provide us with an account of the actual conditions of housing. For example, there may be separate dwellings at the same address or the information in the population register is otherwise not up-to-date.

When is an entrepreneur’s family member an entrepreneur?

In unemployment security, you are not an entrepreneur based on ownership alone. Entrepreneurship always requires working for the company you own.

The Unemployment Security Act defines a person as an entrepreneur by referring to the pension laws of entrepreneurs. Therefore, if you are an entrepreneur under these laws, you are also covered for unemployment.

If you work for a company for which your family members have ownership or control, they will not be taken into account, unless you also have ownership yourself.

The exception to this comes from the Farmers’ Pensions Act, which may be the basis for situations where you are an entrepreneur without your own share of ownership.

The Unemployment Security Act also defines a co-owner of a company as an entrepreneur. Co-ownership is defined on the basis of ownership and control. There are also similar rules in the Self-Employed Persons’ Pensions Act, but in the Unemployment Security Act, a person is more likely to be considered an entrepreneur. It is therefore possible that you are not an entrepreneur when applying the pension laws, but you are an entrepreneur when applying the Unemployment Security Act.

In unemployment security, you are a co-owner and thus an entrepreneur, if

  • you work in a managerial position in a limited liability company where you yourself hold at least 15% of the share capital, voting rights or other similar controlling power
  • you work in a managerial position in a limited liability company where you and your family members together hold at least 30% of the share capital, voting rights or other similar controlling power
  • you work in a limited liability company where you or you together with your family members have at least half of the share capital, voting rights or other similar authority
  • you work in a company other than a limited liability company as mentioned above and you or you together with your family members have the same control as referred to in the above points

When do you work in a leadership position?

Working in a managerial position means that you are the CEO or a member of the Board of Directors of a limited liability company or if you work in a limited liability company or other company in a similar position.

Working condition of an entrepreneur’s family member

If you work for a company of a family member living in the same household and do not have ownership in that company, you are an employee. So you can insure your earnings in case of unemployment with us.

The right to earnings-related daily allowance requires that you have fulfilled the employment condition. As a family member of an entrepreneur, this condition of employment is 52 calendar weeks of work. The employment condition includes every calendar week you have worked as a member of an unemployment fund and the working hours have been at least 18 hours. In addition, the salary must have met the minimum requirements and must have been paid for taxes and other compulsory contributions. 

As a family member of an entrepreneur, the working conditions weeks collected while working in a family business and the working conditions weeks collected in other paid work cannot be combined.  If both conditions of employment are met, you must choose which condition of employment we will use as the basis for earnings-related daily allowance.