Taxation in Finland

Taxation
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Taxation in Finland is carried out by the State of Finland, mainly through the Finnish Tax Administration, an agency of the Ministry of Finance. The Finnish Customs and the Finnish Transport Safety Agency, Trafi, also collect taxes. Taxes collected are distributed to the Government, municipalities, Church, and the Social Insurance Institution, Kela.

Taxation by type

Total income tax burden

The total Finnish tax burden includes the tax dependent on net salary along with employee and employer unemployment payments. When including all direct and indirect taxes paid (personal income tax, social security payments, VAT, etc.) by an employee with an average income of €3,250 per month the total tax was estimated to be 44,5% in 2015.

The personal income tax rate is progressive. In 2019 taxation increases from the base bracket of 8.3% of annual income at €1,000, up to 55% of annual income at €1,000,000 a year. The income tax rate for an average salary of €39,000 a year (€3,250 a month) was 28,6% in 2019.

Earned income taxes

There are several compulsory income taxes. One is paid to national government, one to your local municipality at a rate determined by local politicians, and two social benefit taxes, one for healthcare and the other for unemployment security. There is also a small voluntary tax which can be paid to certain churches. All of these taxes are collected centrally by the Tax Administration (Verohallinto).

National government receives a progressive income tax (tax brackets 6% – 31.25%) and a proportional communal tax paid to the tax payer's local municipality (16.5% – 22.5% depending on locally set rates - the average is 19.17%). The voluntary church tax varies (1.00% – 2.00%, average 1.34%). The health care tax (1.54%) is collected from residents with an income of €14,282 or over. Unemployment Fund contributions are salary related (0.82%). There is a choice of unemployment insurance funds but contributions to them and the benefits are determined by law. These funds provide a daily sum for each day without work which is, in value, a percentage of their former salary.

There is also an earned income tax credit for local taxes, making them progressive despite their fixed nominal rate. Effectively, persons earning less than €14,000 a year do not pay even the municipal tax, and a low-income taxpayer (€20,000/a) pays a substantially lower percentage. Similarly, because of these deductions, only higher-earning taxpayers actually pay the national government tax - a taxpayer of average income (€37,500/a) pays only 0.3% of their income as the national government tax.

Under this system, total income tax, including the mandatory insurance fees, was 29.8% for an average yearly income of 37,400 € in 2010.

The Finnish state income tax brackets for the year 2018.

Taxable earned income (euros)	Basic tax amount	Rate within brackets
17,200–25,700	8.00	6%
25,700–42,400	518.00	17.25%
42,400–74,200	3,398.75	21.25%
74,200–	10,156.25	31.25%

The tax authority collects income taxes from each paycheck, and then pays the difference between tax liability and taxes paid as tax rebate or collects as tax arrears afterward. Since 2019, the tax authority prefers electronic submission of the tax return.

Indirect income taxes

There are also indirect tax-like mandatory social security contributions and insurance fees paid by the employer in addition to the gross income tax. The social security contribution is 2.12% of gross income. The pension and unemployment insurance fees depend on the age of the employee and the size of the employer, but are usually 18.3% and 3.2% of gross income, respectively.

Dividend and capital gains taxes

The income from dividends, rents, and capital gains are taxed with capital income tax. In 2017 the capital income is taxed at a fixed rate of 30% or 34% for income that exceeds 30,000 euro.

Limited companies have a different taxation depending on if they are listed or not. Public companies have 15% of their dividends tax-exempt. The effective dividend tax rate is thus 25.5% - 28.9%.

However, taxation of the dividends from non-listed companies is much lower. As much as 75% of these dividends is tax-exempt up until 150,000 €. This still includes a condition that the dividend must be under or equal to 8% of the mathematical value of the stock (portion of net assets for a single share). 75% of the part that exceeds the 8% boundary will be taxed instead as earned income. If an individual gets more than 150,000 € in dividends from non-listed limited companies, the tax-exempt percentage will only be 15% for the amount that exceeds 150,000 €. The effective tax rate for a dividend that does not exceed 8% of the value of a stock will be 7.5% - 8.5%. Due to the effect of net assets, dividends of debted private companies will usually have their dividends taxed as earned income.

Corporate taxes

The corporate income tax rate is 20.0%. The corporate tax was fully paid as dividend tax before 2004, but because of neutrality requirements of the EU, the tax credits allowed for dividends are now more complex. Corporate tax was lowered from 24.5% to 20.0% in January 2014.

Property tax

Municipal property taxes are low, since municipalities mostly meet their funding needs via direct income taxes and state subsidies. Tax rates are higher for leisure properties like summer cottages. Property taxes are levied annually on present market value. General rates are 0.60–1.35%, 0.32-0.75% on regular housing and 0.50-1.00% on leisure properties.

There is a 4% property transfer tax for property, and 1.6% for stock and housing cooperative shares. First-time home buyers home are exempt.

VAT and excise taxes

VAT is levied at a standard rate of 24% (January 2013), and two reduced rates of 14% on food, restaurant services, catering services and animal feed, and 10% on books, pharmaceutical products, services creating opportunities for physical exercise, passenger transportation and accommodation.

Excise taxes are in place for alcohol, tobacco, sweets, lotteries, insurances, transport fuels and automobiles (2011). The motor vehicle tax is substantial. As a rule, permanent residents cannot drive foreign-registered cars in Finland. Persons with permanent residence outside Finland may drive foreign-registered car in Finland for six months, or up to 18 months if residence abroad is separately proven to Customs.

Pharmacies pay only the excise tax from their yearly income; no VAT is levied on medications. There is a tax credit for pharmacies that keep subsidiary pharmacies (sivuapteekki). The aim of this policy is to support keeping pharmacies in sparsely populated regions.

Pension fees

The mandatory pension fees are paid directly to the pension insurance company selected by the employer or entrepreneur. The pension fees total 23% of the gross income (2011), usually 4.7% is deducted from gross income and the rest of the 23% is paid by the employer in addition to the gross income.

The voluntary pension insurance fees or transfers to a personal pension account are credited in earned income taxation up to 5000 € per year.

According to Finnwatch 60–70% (€37 billion) of Finnish pension funds are invested in the tax havens. Political parties have different agendas in respect to tax havens.

Church tax

Taxes are collected from members of the two official churches, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and Finnish Orthodox Church, and two country-wide Lutheran parishes; the German parish in Finland and Olaus Petri parish for citizens of Sweden living in Finland. The tax rates vary from 1% to 2% of earned income. Persons that are not members of these churches are exempted from paying. However, some of the corporate tax gains are distributed also to churches. This is motivated by their legal requirements to provide certain public services such as maintenance of cemeteries.

Publicity of income taxes

Even when information of earnings and the taxation procedure of individual persons and companies are not public, the amount of taxes carried for each person and company is public information. Tax Administration authority is required to submit information for free if request is targeted. Larger records are submitted for journalistic purposes. Capital income and earned income, are both public information, while taxation of dividends from unlisted limited company is not.

Taxation of non-residents

Anyone who has arrived in Finland and stayed longer than 6 months will become, from Tax Administrator's view, a resident. The residents' worldwide income is subject to Finnish tax, so that no distinction exists between the source country. Non-residents are subjected only to taxation of Finnish-sourced income.

ID number and Tax number

Persons working in Finland for a short period can get their Finnish personal ID at the tax office. The Finnish Tax Administration is entitled to enter information into the Population Register System and distribute identity codes jointly with Local Register Offices if the matter concerns foreigners who arrive for temporary periods, i.e. less than one year to work in Finland. ID requires following information entered to the system: Full name, Date of birth, Sex, Place of birth, Address, Citizenship, Native language and Occupation.

In association of measures against grey economy in the construction industry, A new Act governing the mandatory Tax Numbers and the public Register of Tax Numbers was adopted in 2012. At the moment mandatory Tax Numbers are issued for construction-industry workers only. The Individual Tax Number does not reveal the individual's age, sex or date of birth. The number doesn't change when a worker moves on to work for another employer or to work at another construction site.

Withholding tax for foreign wage earners with special expertise

Under the Act on Withholding Tax for Foreign Wage Earners with Special Expertise (1995), a withholding tax of 35% is levied instead of State income tax on earned income and communal tax. The withholding tax is applied to foreign employees under the following conditions:

• the individual becomes resident in Finland at the beginning of the period of employment to which the Act applies
• the pecuniary salary for this employment is at least 5,800 euros a month during the total period of employment to which the Act applies
• his tasks require special expertise
• he is not a Finnish national and he has not been resident in Finland in the five years preceding the year in which this employment began.

A taxpayer is deemed to be a foreign expert for a maximum of 48 months from the beginning of the employment.

Officials of the European Union

Salaries or grants paid by the European Union bodies, such as European Chemicals Agency in Helsinki, are tax-free in Finland and do not need to be reported to the Finnish Tax Administration or Finnish social security. Employees of European Union bodies may bring a car to Finland without paying the Finnish car tax.

See also

• Economy of Finland

Further reading

Colliander, Anders (April 2009). Taxation in Finland 2009 (PDF). Ministry of Finance publications. 7/2009. Ministry of Finance. ISBN 978-951-804-932-9.

External links

• Ministry of Finance
• Finnish Tax Administration
• Findicator - Taxes and tax-like payments 1975-, ratio to GDP