Working from home for a foreign employer

This guidance is for Finnish-resident individuals who have a foreign employer but who work at least partly from their home in Finland on a remote connection.

You work entirely from home in Finland

If you work from home in Finland for a foreign employer, you need to pay tax on your wages to Finland.

Because you do not work for a Finnish employer, you must pay the Finnish tax in the form of regular prepayments.

Do this:

Request for a prepayment in MyTax or using form 5010. How to apply for prepayment online in MyTax

Because you only work in Finland, you do not need to pay tax on your wages in your foreign employer’s country of domicile in accordance with the tax treaty. Identify your taxation in the other country with your foreign employer and the local tax authority. If withholding has been carried out in the other country on the part of your wages received for working in Finland, contact the authorities and ask for a refund.

Tax return

If your income has not been pre-completed on your tax return or there are errors in the information, correct the information and submit the corrections in MyTax service or on paper form 50A.

Reported by the employer

A foreign employer must report the wages it has paid and other payments made to the Incomes Register if an employee in Finland is a resident taxpayer or insured in Finland.

Reporting data to the Incomes Register: international situations

You do part of your work using a remote connection in Finland

In general, if you reside in Finland but stay in a foreign country and work for an employer there, you must pay tax on your wages in the foreign country where you work and stay. However, if in addition to travelling to your employer’s country to work, you also work from home, the wages you earn are subject to tax in the other country only insofar as the wage is paid for your work in that country. It may be necessary to count the days worked in each of the two countries in order to divide your income in two parts as appropriate.

Because you live in Finland on a permanent basis, you pay Finnish tax to Finland on your entire wages. The country that relieves any double taxation is Finland. This is done by taking account of the tax you have paid to the other country on the part of your wages that you have earned there.

Do this:

Request for a prepayment in MyTax or using form 5010. Report the wages earned for work carried out in your employer’s country of domicile and taxes paid abroad in MyTax or using form 16A under work abroad, not covered by the six-month rule.

How to apply for prepayment online in MyTax

Tax return

If your income has not been pre-completed on your tax return or there are errors in the information, correct the information and submit the corrections in MyTax service or on paper form 50A. Report the wages earned for work carried out in your employer’s country of domicile and taxes paid abroad in MyTax or using form 16A under work to work abroad, not covered by the six-month rule.

Reported by the employer

If an employee works partially in Finland and partially abroad during the same pay period, the foreign employer must submit data on the full income, i.e. also the share of the work performed abroad.

Reporting data to the Incomes Register: international situations

Example: An individual residing in Finland works for a German company. She has made an agreement with the employer company that she works 10 days per month in Germany, and for the rest of the month, she works from home in Finland. She pays tax to Germany on the wages she receives for the 10 days per month. The Finnish Tax Administration imposes tax on the sum total of her wages. However, the tax she has paid to Germany is subtracted. In accordance with the provisions of the tax treaty between Germany and Finland, the authorities use the credit method to eliminate double taxation. As a result, her Finnish tax is reduced because the amount paid to Germany is subtracted from it.

You work from your home in Finland, and your employer’s country of tax residence is another Nordic country

If you work from your home in Finland, and your employer’s country of tax residence is another Nordic country, read more: Working in Nordic country – taxes can be reassigned.

Further information about insurance contributions

If you work in Finland, you are within the scope of the Finnish social security system based on the EU’s social security rules and need to pay insurance contributions in Finland. You must also pay insurance contributions in Finland, even if you only work partly in Finland, if a considerable part of your work is carried out in Finland.

Information about insurance contributions:

Read more

Page last updated 1/20/2023