Payroll in Kosovo 2026: wage tax, pension and minimum wage

In Kosovo the employer withholds two amounts from every salary: the employee's 5% pension contribution to the Kosovo Pension Savings Trust and the wage tax at 0%, 8% or 10%. On top of gross pay it adds its own 5% pension contribution, so in 2026 a salary costs the employer 105% of gross.

Payroll in Kosovo at a glance

Pension contributions and health insurance

Pension contributions are the only social contributions collected from wages in October 2026. They are declared to ATK with the wage tax and credited to each employee's individual account at the Kosovo Pension Savings Trust.

What to watch:

• Who pays. The obligation applies to employees who are Kosovo citizens or permanent residents. The Trust states that foreign residents and residents with temporary status are not allowed to pay pension contributions, so you withhold nothing for them and their wage tax is calculated without the pension deduction.
• Voluntary contributions. According to the Trust, the employer withholds 5% to 15% of gross pay and pays 5% to 15% itself; the legal minimum is 5% + 5%, at least 10% of gross pay in total.
• Declare and pay the same amounts. The employer declares the payroll list in ATK's EDI system and the payment must match the declaration. When both are correct, the Trust credits the contributions within three to five working days. ATK is legally responsible for collecting unpaid contributions.
• Health insurance. Law No. 10/L-028, published in the Official Gazette on 15 May 2026 and in force 15 days later, sets a 7% contribution on gross pay, split 3.5% employer and 3.5% employee, with a base of at least the minimum wage. The employer will withhold and pay it under rules and in a form that ATK has to set, and during the Fund's first five years the rates may differ from 3.5% + 3.5%. By mid-October 2026 ATK had published no notice on starting collection, so check its notices before you add the line to payroll.

Wage tax (tatimi në paga)

The employer withholds the wage tax under Law No. 05/L-028 on Personal Income Tax. The employee's pension contributions paid through the employer are deductible (Article 15), so the tax is calculated on gross pay minus the 5% contribution. Since the August 2024 payroll, Law No. 08/L-142 sets these bands:

Primary and secondary employer. The bands apply only at the primary employer, the one the employee designates as such. Any other employer withholds a flat 10% of the taxable wage for each period (Article 38). An employee therefore benefits from the 0% and 8% bands only once.

The monthly tax on a primary-job wage is easy to check: up to €250 of taxable wage there is no tax, between €250 and €450 it is 8% of the part above €250, and above €450 it is €16 plus 10% of the part above €450.

Minimum wage, working time and mandatory pay

• Minimum wage. Government decision no. 10/273 of 31 October 2025, adopted under Article 57 of the Labour Law, set it at €2.50 per hour of regular work, or €425 gross a month for full-time work, from 1 January 2026, and at €3.00 an hour, or €500 gross a month, from 1 July 2026.
• Working time. Full-time work is 40 hours a week. Overtime is limited to 8 hours a week, except in emergencies.
• Pay supplements. Article 56 of the Labour Law adds a percentage of the hourly base pay: 20% for on-call duty, 30% for night work (22:00 to 06:00), 30% for overtime, 50% for work on public holidays and 50% for weekend work. The weekend and public-holiday supplements are not added together for the same hour.
• 13th salary. The Labour Law does not provide for a 13th salary or a holiday bonus; any such payment comes from the contract or a collective agreement.
• Annual leave. At least four weeks of paid leave, plus one working day for every five years of service.
• Sick leave. Up to 20 working days a year at 100% of pay, paid by the employer.

Monthly payroll calendar and filings

1. 1Register your workers in EDI. ATK requires every employer to record each current worker through the worker registration form in EDI, with start date, working hours, profession and position, by 31 October 2026 at the latest, and to keep the data up to date (Law No. 08/L-257 on Tax Administration and Procedures, Article 43(5)).
2. 2On payday. Withhold the 5% pension contribution and the wage tax. The Labour Law requires a written statement for every payment and every supplement paid; pay goes by bank transfer or in cash, and cash payments must be recorded in a register.
3. 3By the 15th of the following month. File the WM declaration, the monthly statement of wage tax withheld and pension contributions, in EDI, and pay the wage tax and the employee and employer contributions as declared.
4. 4Every month, for every employee. Mark whether the job is primary or secondary, so the right tax is applied.

What the payslip should show: gross pay, each supplement, the employee's pension contribution, the taxable wage, the wage tax and net pay, plus the employer's pension contribution.

Worked example: €1,000 a month

An employee in their primary job, a Kosovo citizen, earning €1,000 gross a month in October 2026, with the mandatory 5% + 5% pension:

The same €1,000 paid by a secondary employer: €50.00 pension, then 10% of €950.00, €95.00 of wage tax, so a net of €855.00.

Common mistakes

1. 1Taxing gross pay instead of gross pay minus the employee's pension contribution.
2. 2Applying the bands at a secondary employer, or at two employers, instead of the flat 10%.
3. 3Withholding pension contributions from foreign employees with temporary residence, which the Trust does not accept.
4. 4Paying below €500 after 1 July 2026, or keeping the €425 minimum in contracts.
5. 5Paying the weekend and the public-holiday supplement for the same hour.
6. 6Declaring one amount and paying another, or missing the 15th.
7. 7Leaving existing workers out of the EDI register after the 31 October 2026 deadline.

How Clientlly helps

Clientlly ships a built-in payroll profile for Kosovo: the wage-tax bands and the 0% band as modelled, the 5% employee and 5% employer pension contributions and the minimum wage, checked against official sources in October 2026. It calculates gross to net and the employer contributions, produces payslips, and supports recurring payroll adjustments and imports of employees and payroll data; an administrator can adjust the rates in the payroll tax settings. The profile models one employee in a primary job, single, without dependants, at national level, so voluntary contributions above 5% and personal circumstances must be checked.

For Kosovo it also adds the Labour Law's supplements for night, weekend, public-holiday and on-call hours as separate payroll lines, warns when a contract is below the minimum wage, lets you mark employees outside the Trust, and exports each run's WM list with ATK's columns to Excel so you can check it before you declare it in EDI.

Alongside payroll, the human resources module handles leave requests and approvals with a leave calendar and HR documents, and attendance and time tracking records working hours and overtime. To close the books after the payroll run, see our month-end close checklist.