Foreign key person – you can pay tax at source on your income
If you are a foreign key employee and your employer is Finnish, you can pay 32% of tax at source on your income even if you stay in Finland for more than 6 months. You are given the key-employee tax treatment if all the conditions listed below are met:
- You become a resident taxpayer in Finland when you start working here.
- Your cash salary for your duties as a key employee is at least €5,800 a month. Fringe benefits are not included in the cash salary. If you come to Finland to teach or do research in an institute of higher education, there is no minimum requirement for the cash salar
- Your work in Finland requires special expertise.
- You are not a Finnish citizen.
- You have not been a resident taxpayer in Finland during 5 calendar years before the start of your work.
These rules also apply if your employer is not Finnish but your wages are paid by a Finnish party at your foreign employer’s request. For example, your wages may be paid by an accounting agency.
Because the income-tax treatment of a key employee involves the withholding of a source tax which is final, no tax deductions are available. In the same way, you cannot deduct any expenses, that you may have paid in order to support your key-employee income, against the taxes imposed on your other income.
There is no need to declare the income received as a key employee on a Finnish tax return, unless you are receiving some other earned income simultaneously.
If you do not meet the above criteria, read the instructions relevant to you:
How to request a tax card
A key person’s tax treatment is indicated on the tax card. Request a tax card within 90 days after starting your work as a key person. You can receive the tax relief only for your first 48 months of work.
Note: You do not need to request a new tax card if
- you have requested a tax-at-source card before 2020
- your tax card is still in force
- your circumstances have not changed.
Until the end of 2019, the tax-at-source rate for key persons was 35%. Starting 1 January 2020, employers have been able to withhold 32% at their own initiative, even if the tax rate specified on the tax card was still 35%.
APPLY FOR A FINNISH PERSONAL ID
After you have filled in the form, you must go to a tax office in person to sign the form.
APPLY FOR A TAX CARD
Fill in Form 5042e – select I am applying for a key person tax card in section 1.
Fill in the form and take it to the tax office.
MAKE AN APPOINTMENT AT A TAX OFFICE
You must go to a tax office in person so that you can be identified and assigned a Finnish personal ID.
Please take the following documents with you:
- the forms you have filled in
- a valid passport or identity card (not a driving licence), if you are applying for a Finnish personal ID
- a valid residence permit or visa, if required and if you are applying for a Finnish personal ID
- a written statement by your employer company, or a photocopy of your work order or contract, including information concerning your salary and your duties that require special expertise
- a photocopy of the A1 certificate, if you have one (A1 is a certificate issued by the authorities in your home country, affirming that you are covered by the social insurance system of that country). your country of residence can issue you an A1 certificate, if the country you are coming to Finland from is an EU country, an EEA country, the United Kingdom or Switzerland.
If you cannot log in to MyTax, call our Telephone Service on 029 512 050 for an appointment.
The Tax Administration will make sure that your tax matters are in order. You will also get your tax card from the Tax Administration.
GIVE THE TAX CARD TO YOUR EMPLOYER
When you start working, give the tax card to your employer. The employer withholds tax on your wages based on the tax card and pays it to the Tax Administration.
Your employer withholds insurance contributions from your wages
No health care contribution or daily allowance contribution is withheld from your wages.
However, your employer will withhold pension and unemployment insurance contributions, unless you present the following documentation issued to you by your country of tax residence:
- An A1 certificate
- A certificate similar to the A1 certificate, proving that you are covered by social insurance in your home country.
If you receive other earnings
If you have some other income subjected to Finnish taxes, which you receive simultaneously with the income of a key employee, your tax percentage rate concerning that other income becomes higher than it would be if you received no key-employee income.
You are required to give details about your key-employee income when you submit an application for a tax card/prepayments for your other earnings. In a case like this, call us on 029 497 024 (international income taxation of individual taxpayers) and specify the amount of income taxable in Finland in parallel with the key-employee income you receive.
To have other income subject to Finnish taxes means that you must submit a Finnish income tax return, where you also declare the key-employee income that was received.
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