Payroll in Lithuania, run properly
You have people employed in Lithuania and nobody local to run the payroll. We calculate it, file what has to be filed, and make sure nothing lands on you unexpectedly.
What you need to know
- Employer social contributions are 1.77% of gross for an open-ended contract, 2.49% for fixed-term.
- The employee pays 19.5% in social contributions plus income tax, all withheld from gross.
- Sodra must be notified no later than one working day before an employee starts.
- Income tax and Sodra reports are filed monthly, with fixed deadlines and penalties for missing them.
What we run for you
Monthly payroll
Gross-to-net calculation for every employee, including the tax-exempt allowance taper, overtime, night work, public holidays and variable pay.
Sodra reporting
Registration and deregistration of employees, monthly reporting, and the notifications that carry deadlines — including the one filed before an employee's first day.
Income tax
Monthly withholding and declaration, plus the annual reporting that follows.
Payslips
Issued to each employee in Lithuanian and English, so your people can read what they were paid.
Absence and leave
Annual leave accrual and balances, sick leave, parental leave, and the employer's share of sick pay.
Starters and leavers
Contracts, amendments, final settlements, severance calculations and the reporting that goes with each.
Year-end
Annual declarations and the figures your finance team needs for consolidation.
Cost forecasting
What a hire will actually cost before you make it, including working backwards if you have promised a net figure.
Who this is for
- Companies with people in Lithuania but no local HR or payroll function
- Companies moving employees onto Lithuanian contracts from another country
- Companies leaving an Employer of Record arrangement and taking employment in-house
- Companies whose accountant handles bookkeeping but not employment compliance
- Companies where payroll currently sits with someone who has other responsibilities
Lithuanian payroll is a sequence of deadlines
Most of the risk is in the reporting, not the arithmetic.
- 1
Before the first working day
The starter notification must reach Sodra no later than one working day before the employee begins. Filing it late is a breach regardless of when the contract was signed.
- 2
Every month
Income tax withheld and declared. Sodra contributions calculated and reported. Payslips issued.
- 3
On every change
A new contract, an amendment, a change of position or salary, unpaid leave, parental leave, termination — each carries its own notification and its own deadline.
- 4
On termination
Final settlement including unused annual leave, severance where it applies, and deregistration with Sodra.
- 5
Annually
Income tax reporting and the reconciliation that follows.
Most of what we are brought in to fix is not a calculation error. It is missed notifications, contracts that do not match what payroll is actually paying, and leave balances that were never tracked.
Employer costs here surprise people
Employer social insurance is 1.77% of gross salary for an open-ended contract and 2.49% for a fixed-term one, plus small contributions to the guarantee and long-term employment funds.
If you are used to rates of 20% or more elsewhere in Europe, that looks wrong. It is not. Lithuania moved the contributions onto the employee side and gross salaries rose to compensate. The employee pays 19.5% in social contributions — 12.52% social insurance and 6.98% health — plus income tax, all withheld from gross.
Two practical consequences. Your total employer cost sits close to the gross figure, so budget from gross rather than applying an uplift. And the gap between gross and net is wide: taxes and contributions take roughly 40% of gross, which matters when you are agreeing a salary with a candidate who is thinking in net terms.
Full figures, tax brackets and a worked example are in our employee taxes and employer costs guide.
What we are usually brought in to fix
Contracts that do not match payroll. The contract says one thing, the payslip says another, and nobody noticed until an employee asked.
Untracked leave. Annual leave was never properly accrued, and the balance surfaces as a liability at termination.
Net promises without gross calculations. Someone was promised a net figure without working out what it costs. In Lithuania the answer is not a simple multiplier.
Missed notifications. The employment itself was correct but the reporting was late.
How we work
One senior contact. Not a ticketing system. You deal with the person who does the work.
In English. Reporting, payslips and correspondence in a language your head office can read.
Documented. You get the figures behind every calculation, not just a total.
You hear it before, not after. If a hire, a raise or a termination has a cost implication, you hear it while you can still decide.
Questions we are asked
- Do we need a Lithuanian entity for this?
- Payroll runs through a Lithuanian employer, so yes. If you do not have an entity, we can talk through whether registering one or using an Employer of Record fits your situation better.
- Can you take over payroll someone else is running?
- Yes. We review what is in place first — contracts, Sodra records, leave balances — so anything inherited is identified before we take it on rather than afterwards.
- Do you work alongside our accountant?
- Regularly. Bookkeeping and employment compliance are different disciplines and many accountants do not cover the second. We handle the employment side and give your accountant what they need.
- Can you calculate what an employee will cost before we hire?
- Yes, including working backwards from a net salary you have already promised.
- Do you handle non-EU employees?
- Yes. Payroll, residence permits and employment documentation are handled together rather than by separate providers.
- How many employees do you work with?
- From one upwards. Small headcounts are often where compliance gaps are widest, because nobody owns the process.
Tell us what you have in place
Answer these and we will reply within one working day with what running your payroll properly involves and what it would cost. No charge for this reply.