A year has gone by with the new holiday law and it's been a year with a lot of new rules and deadlines for both company owners, pay administrators and employees. A new holiday year begins on the 1st of September and we have made an overview of the most important dates and deadlines you should be aware of for the new holiday year. 

Most important periods for the holiday year 

There's two important periods to be aware of in a holiday year -the holiday saving period and the holiday spending period.

The saving period lasts for one year -from the 1st of September to the 31st of August the next year, where the employee earns vacations days every month. 

The spending period lasts for 16 months -from the 1st of September to the 31st of December the following year. 

This means that holiday that has been saved in the period from 1st of September 2021 to 31st of August 2022, can be used until the 31st of December 2022. 

If you have holiday left over from the previous year, there will be an overlap between old vacation days, and new vacation days earned after 1st of September. As a pay administrator you have to make sure that the old vacation days are spend first, when an employee goes on holiday in the period September - December. 

Zenegys system is set up to automatically use the oldest vacation days first, when an employee registers holiday. 

Disbursement of holiday pay - The most important dates

Holiday allowance: 

Employees with pay during holiday, saves up a holiday allowance of typically 1% of the holiday entitled pay. The holiday allowance is typically disbursed twice a year -in May and August. 

The disbursement in May is for the period 1st of September - 31st of May. 

The disbursement in August is for the period 1st of June - 31st of August.

So it's important that you, as a pay administrator, remember to calculate and disburse the holiday allowance twice a year. With Zenegy it's easy to disburse the holiday allowance to all employees. The system calculates the holiday allowance continuously and you just have to choose that the holiday allowance is paid out with the salary in May and August. 

Holiday pay:

Hourly paid employees typically earns a holiday pay of 12,5% of the holiday entitled pay. The deadlines for deposit to Holiday account (Feriekonto) depends on which pay period the company has chosen. 

See the following deadlines for deposit and reporting: 

• The pay period ends on the 15. -The deadline is the last bank day in the same month
• The pay period ends on the 16. -The deadline is the 15. the following month (if the deadline is on a weekend/holiday, the deadline is the bank day before) 

Special for employees with pay during holiday: 

Employees with pay during holiday receives holiday pay when they resign. 

The employer is obliged to settle 12,5% of the holiday entitled pay to Holiday account (Feriekonto). The deadline for deposit and reporting of holiday pay is the last bank day of the month, where the employee has their last day. Zenegy's system is setup so the deposit and reporting of holiday pay to the Holiday account (Feriekonto) happens automatically in connection to the last salary payment to the resigned employee. 

Special for the 5th holiday week

Employees earns 2,08 days per month, which corresponds to 25 vacation days during a holiday year or, said in a different way, 5 weeks. Cf. the holiday law the employee must spend at least 4 weeks of holiday during the holiday spending period. On the other hand, the employee can decide themselves if they want to spend the 5th holiday week or have it transferred to the next holiday year. For employees  that hasn't arranged for a transfer or deposit of the 5th holiday week, the week will be paid out automatically in March.

Holiday in advance

If the company has decided to allow the employees to take holidays in advance, it's important to be aware of the employees holiday balance when the holiday year changes on the 1st of September. The possibility for holidays in advance is cf. the holiday law, conditioned by the possibility to earn back all the vacation day taken in advance, before the holiday year ends on the 31st of August. So the employee has to be able to earn back all the days taken in advance during the same holiday year. It's the company's responsibility to keep track of the employees holiday registrations, so the holiday balance isn't negative when the new holiday year begins. 

If you want an even more detailed overview of the different holiday terms and deadlines you can see more on our holiday law site. 

 Read our holiday law site here.