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When you use an app or a website to sell goods or services to customers, the app’s or website’s owner is a platform operator who is under a duty to collect data about you and the sales you have made. The platform operator sends the data to the Tax Administration once a year. The same applies to platforms you may use for renting out an apartment or a motor vehicle: the operator of the platform sends data to the Tax Administration concerning the rental income you receive.
The information-reporting requirement of platform operators is based on the EU directive DAC7, which concerns data collection and reporting to tax authorities in all member states. Operators need to submit reports including the identities of those who are registered on the platform to sell goods or services, or to offer immovable property for rent.
This means that the Tax Administration receives detailed information on your income resulting from sales and other transactions on digital platforms both in Finland and in other countries. The recently introduced information-reporting requirement of platform operators did not cause any new taxes to be levied. In the same way, the obligations of a taxpayer to report their income are as before: although the Tax Administration now receives detailed information from the platforms, you continue to have responsibility for including all the amounts you have received in your tax return.
Your activities on a digital platform may result in many different kinds of income for you: selling prices when you have sold goods, various fees for personal services you provided, or rental income from rental contracts.
There is no need for the operator of a digital platform to inform the Tax Administration of sales if the transactions are carried out in a small scale. The calendar-yearly threshold for the platform operator’s reporting is exceeded only if you sold at least 30 different items on one single platform operator’s platforms or websites, or if the total of the selling prices is more than €2,000.
The tax obligations related to sales of ordinary household goods are as before. No changes have been made to these obligations based on the fact that the platform operator is now required to send data to the Tax Administration concerning these sales. Selling items deemed to be ordinary household goods is exempt from taxation if you or your family members had used the items before selling them and if the profits received from such sales stay below €5,000 per tax year. Examples of ordinary household items include used tableware and pottery, various consumer goods and used clothes.
However, if you receive taxable capital gains (higher profits) from your sales or if you sell goods on a digital platform on a continuous basis so the trading with goods is an active operation, you must report the resulting income when you file your tax return.
Read more about sales of household property:
The operators of digital platforms send the Tax Administration information on the income you receive for providing personal services to your customers. Services such as taking care of domestic animals or pets, transport of passengers or transport of goods, cleaning and housekeeping, renovations, and different kinds of specialist work are deemed as personal services when you use a digital platform for contacting the customers.
If you are self-employed and you operate your trade offering services on a digital platform, you must file a business tax return and report all the income you receive. Further information about self-employed operators of a trade or business
If you pursue activities using a digital platform not in the form of operation of business or trade, you must report your income and any deductible expenses as a private individual taxpayer when you file your pre-completed tax return.
More information:
The operators of digital platforms send the Tax Administration information on the rental income you receive.
However, when you file your tax return for the year, you still need to report all the received rental income relating to apartments, houses, parking spaces and other residential or commercial property.
Read more about taxes on rental income:
The operators of digital platforms send the Tax Administration information on the rental income you receive.
However, when you file your tax return for the year, you still need to report all the received rental income from renting out a car, boat, motorcycle camper van, etc.
Read more: Occasional rental income from other than residential property
The platform operators that submit reports to Finland must first identify the sellers that use their platform, and then collect the required seller data and information on the sales of goods and services carried out.
Under provisions of the DAC7 directive, all platform operators in the European Union must collect data on all sellers. For this reason, platform operators in another country may also ask you for these details.
When you are an individual seller, the following details must be given to the operator:
When you are an entity seller such as a corporation or company, the details are:
Individuals (natural persons) who are tax residents of Finland use their personal ID for TIN. Please note that ‘natural person’ also means a self-employed operator of a trade, and a self‑employed professional with a registered company name.
For Finnish companies and corporate entities, the Business ID is used as the TIN.
From 2023, the law requires platform operators to collect data on all sales and rentals they have facilitated via digital platforms. They need to send the collected data on to the Tax Administration as provided in the Act governing the information-reporting requirement imposed on platform operators within the digital economy (Laki digitaalisen alustatalouden toimijoiden tiedonantovelvollisuudesta verotuksen alalla (1267/2022)).
The reason for enacting the Act was the recent change of the EU Council Directive on administrative assistance known as DAC7. The Tax Administration shares the platform operators’ information with all the EU member states that have a connection with the seller’s activities. Correspondingly, the Tax Administration receives reports from other member states on sellers whose country of tax residence is Finland, including personal details and the sellers’ income from selling goods or services or from renting out immovable property located in Finland.
The operators have an obligation to send you two reminder letters.
If you still do not give the details, the operator has the right to close your account or to refuse to pay you selling prices and similar income up to the date when you give the details.
If you provide details that contain errors that are relevant for tax assessment, you may be required to pay a punitive tax increase.
The operators send personal details to the Tax Administration to confirm your identity, and additionally:
If you rent out immovable property such as a house, apartment or summer cottage, the operator will also send data concerning the rented-out property (street address, property identifier, dates when rented, etc.).
The seller information and income reported to the Tax Administration are considered third-party data for purposes of comparison that are used for monitoring taxpayers’ compliance with legal norms.
You are always required to report for yourself any taxable income you have received via the platform as well as any expenses and deductions related to that income. The data coming to the Tax Administration from the digital platform operators is not automatically added to the income amounts included in your pre-completed tax return.
Yes, you can check all the records that your platform operator has made, to make sure they are correct.
However, when you file your tax return, report the income you have received, which is subject to tax, and report the related expenses, as well.
Please contact the platform operator to talk about the corrections to be made.
When you file your tax return, it is important that you report the income you have received, which is subject to tax, and that you also report the related expenses.
Digital platform operators are legally required to collect and report seller information and income to the Tax Administration. In addition, every operator is required to store the collected data for a limited period.
The question of a possible contradiction with GDPR rules was addressed by the legislator before the Act governing the platform operators’ information-reporting requirement was adopted. According to the Government proposal for the Act, the processing of the collected personal details has sufficient consistency with existing legal norms on data protection.