Beginner’s guide to your tax return in Finland

Have you already obtained your pre-completed tax return from Finland’s tax authorities? Every tax payer receives it in March or April either by postal mail or electronically if using the suomi.fi service.

Luckily filing tax returns is pretty simple in Finland: you can file online and also in English! Even if you received the postal mail in Finnish language, you can always review it in English in MyTax.

Why is your tax return in Finland pre-completed?

Fortunately Finnish tax authorities have already collected all kind of financial information from your employer, bank, etc. Based on these records and for your convenience authorities have pre-completed your tax return on your behalf. Nevertheless, it’s up to you to review the pre-filled document, and if it is not correct or it requires additional information, you must make changes before the due date stated in the document. If you are an employee your deadline is 4 May, 11 May or 18 May 2021 (check your document or MyTax).

What to do with your tax return in Finland?

1. Check the following pre-completed entries

• Your personal information
• Your bank account number (for tax refunds)
• Earned income (verify against your December payslip, at the bottom you usually find the full year totals)
• Preliminary deductions and taxes paid from earned income (see your December payslip)
• Capital gains and losses (check against your bank’s or broker’s statement)
• Dividends (verify against your bank’s or broker’s statement)
• Membership fees for labour market organisations (check what you paid to them)
• Contributions to a voluntary pension insurance contract or long-term saving acccount (”PS-tili”)
• Loan interests (check your online banking for a yearly tax document)

If you find incorrect information please correct it, f.ex. in MyTax.

Example:
Curiously my personal pre-completed tax return for 2020 shows dividend income of around 198€, next to other capital gains. Indeed I got this dividend income, but I received it inside my Equity savings account. Therefore it is not (yet) taxable income. Per definition gains incurred in an Equity savings account are taxable only once withdrawn from the account (see this article for more info).

Consequently I will correct the pre-completed tax return and mark dividend income with 0€. As a result my tax liability will go down by almost 60€ (30% capital income tax of 198€).

Luckily such mistakes are rare in the pre-completed tax return, but possible and they can be avoided if you review the document.

2. Add

• Missing rental income (f.ex. from AirBnB or other rental activity, also add related costs)
• Capital gains and losses not yet in tax return (also from abroad! If you paid tax abroad, add as well)
• Dividends and other capital income missing (see capital gains)
• Absent earned income (if your pre-completed return doesn’t show your earned income, your employer might not have filed it properly: contact your employer as this might backfire to you some beautiful day)

Again the easiest way to add missing information into your tax return is to use MyTax.

3. Claim

• Expenses for production of earned income or capital income (see eBook below)
• Travelling costs between workplace and home (see eBook below)
• Tax credit for household expenses (see eBook below)
• Deduction for reduced capacity to pay taxes (see eBook below)
• Tax credit for child maintenance payments (see eBook below or blog article)

In general you need to claim tax deductions and tax credits yourself so make sure to do that if entitled to. Obviously tax benefits do not necessarily show up in your pre-completed tax return unless you have submitted these to tax authorities earlier. Tax deductions will reduce your taxable income and tax credits directly reduce your taxes.
All you need to know about saving taxes in Finland is in our e-Book (below!).

What if I don’t do anything with my tax return in Finland?

As explained in the beginning you are asked to make above modifications before your personal deadline. If you do not make any changes tax authorities will assume the pre-completed return is correct and includes everything that needs to be filed.

Please keep in mind that if you fail to file any missing income in your tax return you engage in fiscal fraud. Don’t take this risk and correct your tax return! If on the other hand you fail to claim deductions you were entitled to, you most probably pay too many taxes.

Feel free to contact us (contact form, Instagram or Facebook) if you feel you need some kind of assistance with your tax return!