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When you start receiving retirement income, you need a tax card for pension

Examples of retirement income include old-age pension, additional pension, partial early old-age pension (previously known as “part-time pension” – osa-aikaeläke), rehabilitation support, disability pension (which is also called “sickness pension” – sairauseläke). You will need a tax card designed for these types of pension.

You do not need a tax card if your pension is subject to capital-income taxes such as pensions based on voluntary pension insurance contracts and certain other pensions.

For requesting the tax card, you need to have information about your pension at hand

This information or documentation will be necessary for completing the request form for the tax card:

  • Your pension provider’s decision letter or other document showing that you will start receiving pension
  • Your income and taxes withheld since January this year, up to today’s date 
  • Your information on tax-deductible expenses, typically for commuting (only for the months you travelled between home and work) and expenses that qualify for a tax credit for household expenses, if any

Request a tax card in MyTax

MyTax instructions for requesting a tax card

  1. Go to Tax card and prepayments 2024 on MyTax home page and click Tax cards and prepayments.
  2. Click the Request a new tax card button.
  3. Click the Select the complete tax card request button.
  4. The request has 6 stages. Enter new data or changed data when you proceed through the different stages.

  • Basic details

    Check that the information is correct.

  • Pre-completed income and deductions

    Check the income recorded in MyTax, including your wage income, unemployment allowance, etc. Make sure that your holiday pay is included in the wage income totals.

    Please note that if you enter any changes to the data on wages, MyTax will not only create a tax card for pension, but also a revised tax card for wages.

  • Other income

    • Go to the Pensions section and select Yes.
    • Click Add new pension. If you receive several different pensions, you need to fill in a specification for each one.
    • Select the pension provider’s name from the menu. Select the type of the pension, such as old-age pension. Look up the following on your pension decision and enter the information on the request form:
      • Your pension’s start date (for the end date, enter 31 December of the current year)
      • Whether or not you receive the pension monthly
      • Amount of the pension, euros per month
    • If you are requesting a new tax card part way through the year, also fill in:
      • Your pensions received so far during the year, i.e. since the beginning of January
      • The taxes withheld on them, from January until the current day – in other words, indicate the total amount withheld in the course of the current year (Also fill in any pension you have received for a previous year if it has been paid during the current year.)
    • If you request periodisation of your income tax on the pensions, select Yes. Enter the start and end date of the period, and the amount of pension you have received retroactively within the period or periods concerned.

      You have the right to request that the Tax Administration periodise the income taxes, to make them more even, if you received retroactive pension amounts connected to a prior year, and to 3 months within that year, and the size of the retroactive lump sum was at least €500.

      Click OK to finish.

  • Other deductions

    If, during the current year’s first months, you were employed and received wage income, please check the recorded data, or enter new data as necessary, for your travel expenses for commuting between home and work, for trade-union membership dues or unemployment fund contributions, and for any expenses for the production of income.

  • Delivery method

    Re-check the requested card’s period of validity and the way you want the card delivered. The MyTax system displays a suggested start date of the card’s validity. Compare the date with the pension start date shown on your pension decision letter. The two dates should be the same. The Tax Administration sends your tax card information directly to your pension provider.

  • Preview and send

    Check that the information is correct. Click Edit or Previous to make corrections if necessary.

    You can select Save as unfinished to log out and continue filling in the details later. Data saved as unfinished will be stored for 1 month. The Tax Administration will not process the data before you have submitted it.

    When everything is correct, click Submit. You will receive an acknowledgement of receipt.

    You can always find a copy of your tax card in MyTax

If the Tax Administration has sent you a suggestion for a tax card for pension via MyTax, follow these instructions. Typically, in situations where a pension provider has delivered information to the Tax Administration concerning a retired person’s pension , we send the retired person a suggestion for a tax card.

  1. Go to Tax card and prepayments 2024 in MyTax and click Tax cards and prepayments.
  2. Move on to Proposal for a new tax card for pension, and select Check proposal.
  3. Check all the information recorded at the different stages in the request form for a tax card in MyTax. If you find any mistakes, make corrections as necessary.
  4. When you arrive at the Preview and send stage, click Submit.
  5. The Tax Administration sends your tax card information directly to your pension provider. A copy of your tax card is always available in MyTax

You can also request a tax card in other ways

When you are issued a new tax card for pension, we deliver it directly to your pension provider. So please do not send your card to the provider yourself. 

Note:

If your pension is subject to earned-income taxes and you do not have a tax card for pension, the provider must withhold 40% on the pension payments to you.

When your income is pension, it does not entitle you to similar deductions as wage income does. However, the statutory deduction called “pension-income deduction” (eläketulovähennys; pensionsinkomstavdrag) is granted to you. At the same time, wages from employment entitle workers to certain deductions related to expenses, including the worker’s expenses of commuting between home and work, and any worker-paid expenses for the production of income. For this reason, the percentage rate of income tax on pension is greater than that on wages.

If your pension is subject to capital-income taxes, you do not need a tax card. Pension is deemed capital income if you receive it by virtue of having an individual pension insurance contract or a long-term savings contract. The capital income tax rate is 30%.

If you are a person with limited tax liability, i.e. a nonresident in Finland, and you start receiving pension from a Finnish source, the pension insurance company can submit a request for a tax card on your behalf.

If you live in a foreign country, you will continue to pay the Finnish healthcare contribution until the end of the year of leaving Finland and for three years after that. The contribution you must pay is included in the withholding percentage rate calculated for your card. The healthcare contribution is less than 2%.

The Tax Administration will send you the tax card for pension every year

After you submit a request for a tax card for pension for the first time, the Tax Administration will automatically send information on your valid withholding rate to your pension provider each year. This means that you do not have to request a new card for each year. 

You can look up the decision on tax preassessment to check the names of the payors that the Tax Administration has sent the information to. You can find the decision in MyTax: Go to the Communication tab. Then select Decisions and letters and click Open decisions and letters.

You will receive information on your currently valid tax card through MyTax every year. We recommend that you check the information to make sure that the Tax Administration has sent the currently valid details on your withholding percentage rate to your pension provider.

When do you need to request a revised tax card for pension?

We recommend that you request a revised tax card if:

  • You have received a preassessment decision or a clarification sheet enclosed with your tax card, and no data on your retirement income or pensions is showing.
  • The pension you receive has been changed.
  • We additionally recommend that you request a tax card for the following year, if you start getting pension near the current calendar year’s end, i.e. November or December. In a situation where you have a tax card valid for November and December, the Tax Administration has not enough time to register the data you entered before the Tax Administration must finalise the following year’s withholding rates and tax cards. In these circumstances, you need to request a tax card not only for the calendar year that is still ongoing but also for next year.

Instructions for different situations

Pension — other pages

Page last updated 1/2/2024