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Estonia daily allowance 2026: 82 euros, Tallinn day trips included

Karma Accounts · Published 20 October 2026

For a qualifying business trip (työmatka) from Finland to Estonia, the tax-free maximum daily allowance (Viron päiväraha) in 2026 is 82 euros per travel day, up from 78 euros in 2025, with one rate for Tallinn and the rest of Estonia. A Tallinn day trip by ferry can get the 82 euros if you are away at least 10 hours; a shorter trip is paid under the domestic rules, at most 25 euros. Two free meals in a travel day halve the 82 euros to 41.

This page covers Estonia only. What makes a trip a business trip, the rules shared by every country and the rates for other destinations are in our article on the foreign daily allowance 2026.

Estonia daily allowance 2026 at a glance

The Estonian amounts are from section 13 of the Tax Administration's decision on tax-free travel allowances for 2026, the domestic amount from section 12, and the 2025 figure from the decision for 2025. These are tax-free ceilings: they do not decide what the employer must pay under the employment contract or a collective agreement. Anything paid above them is taxable salary.

One rate for all of Estonia

The decision lists Estonia with a single amount, with no separate rate for Tallinn, so a trip to Tartu or Saaremaa has the same 82-euro maximum. Finland and Estonia are in the same time zone, so the 24-hour travel days need no adjusting either.

The 10-hour line on a Tallinn day trip

On a Tallinn day trip the 10 hours are the first thing to check. The country rate needs a trip abroad of at least 10 hours in total, counted from leaving home or the workplace to getting back, ferry and harbour time included. For a trip shorter than 24 hours the rate is that of the destination country.

If the trip lasts less than 10 hours, the domestic rules and amounts apply instead: over 6 hours gives the partial per diem of up to 25 euros, and under the domestic rules a single free meal halves it. If the trip is too short for any per diem, a meal allowance of up to 13.50 euros may be paid when work keeps you from your usual eating place.

On longer trips each 24-hour travel day gets the rate of the country where it ends. If it ends on the ferry, the rate is that of the country the ship last left, or, on the way out of Finland, the country it first arrives in.

Example 1: a Tallinn day trip by ferry

You leave home in Helsinki at 07.00 for the morning ferry, meet a client in Tallinn and are home at 19.30 after the afternoon ferry. Times are Finnish time, and there are no free meals unless stated. The trip lasts 12.5 hours, at least 10: 82 euros.

• The client gives you lunch. One free meal does not reduce a foreign per diem: still 82 euros.
• Lunch from the client, and a buffet dinner included in your return ferry ticket. Two free meals, so the per diem halves: 41 euros.
• Home at 16.30 instead. The trip lasts 9.5 hours, under 10, so the domestic partial per diem applies: at most 25 euros, or 12.50 euros if the client gives you lunch.

Example 2: one night in Tallinn

You leave home on Monday at 07.00, work in Tallinn on Monday and Tuesday, sleep at a hotel whose room price includes breakfast, and are home on Tuesday at 20.00. Times are Finnish time, with no free meals.

• Day 1, Monday 07.00 to Tuesday 07.00: it ends in Tallinn, 82 euros.
• That was the last full travel day, and it ended in Estonia. Tuesday 07.00 to 20.00 is 13 hours past it, more than 10, so the Estonian rate again, 82 euros.
• The hotel breakfast is not a meal, so nothing is halved.

Tax-free maximum: 164 euros. Home at 15.00 instead, the return part is 8 hours, more than 2 but not more than 10, so half the Estonian rate: 82 + 41 = 123 euros. A free meal during that return part would not halve the 41 euros again.

These return-part rates apply because the last full travel day ended in Estonia, or would apply if it had ended on a ship or plane that left Estonia. If the trip continues in Finland after you are back, a travel day or part of one that begins after the return follows the domestic rules.

When a Tallinn office changes the answer

A per diem is paid for a business trip: a temporary trip to a special place of work outside the regular workplace. Many Finnish companies, or companies in the same group, have an office in Tallinn, and how often an employee works there matters:

• Occasional visits. If the employee does not work at the Tallinn office regularly, it is a special place of work and the per diem can be paid under the normal rules.
• Regular work there. Regular work at the employer's, or a group company's, permanent establishment in Tallinn may make it a secondary workplace (toissijainen työpaikka): a second regular workplace in another municipality or country. For a trip to a secondary workplace, only the travel costs and reasonable accommodation are tax-free; a per diem, meal allowance or night travel allowance paid for it is taxable salary.

The arrangement has to be assessed case by case. In the Tax Administration's guidance, an HR director who also looks after a subsidiary in another municipality and goes there weekly, though not on fixed days, has a secondary workplace there. A client's premises cannot become a secondary workplace unless the client belongs to the same group.

Free meals and what the employer needs

For the foreign per diem, "free meals" means two in a travel day. A free meal is one the employer arranges or pays for at a client meeting, training or similar event, a meal a client gives you, or a meal included in the ticket price, such as a ferry buffet. A meal you pay for and the company reimburses is not a free meal, but the company cannot pay both tax-free: either the meal is taxable salary or only the per diem less the meal is tax-free.

A hotel breakfast is not a meal for this rule, and breakfast included in the room or ticket price does not reduce the allowance at all. If the company pays for breakfast separately, its price comes off the tax-free per diem; if it pays both the full per diem and the breakfast, the breakfast is taxable salary.

The tax-free treatment rests on the employee's travel claim (matkalasku), as the Prepayment Decree (EPA 17 §) requires: the purpose and destination with the address in Estonia, the route where needed, the means of travel, the start and end dates and times, and the country where each travel day ended. For a day trip, the exact departure and return times matter most, because they decide whether the trip reached 10 hours. Attach the ferry tickets and any hotel bill; receipts and record keeping says how long to keep them.

Tax-free per diems are reported to the Incomes Register with income type Daily allowance (331) by the fifth day of the month after payment, or the next business day if the fifth falls on a weekend or public holiday. Any part above the maximum is salary and is reported within five days of the payment date, like other pay.

The same applies when you own the Oy and travel for it, even in a year without salary, as long as each trip qualifies and you write the claim. A sole trader cannot pay themselves a per diem but can claim an additional deduction; see the hub article. Domestic trips and mileage are in per diems and mileage 2026.

Other countries

Under the same 2026 decision (section 13), the maximum is 70 euros a travel day in Sweden, with the overnight Stockholm ship worked through in the Sweden daily allowance 2026, and 78 euros in Germany, with the ferry to Travemünde, in the Germany daily allowance 2026.

What we do

Allowances paid with the salary go on the payslip and into the Incomes Register report in our payroll. Payroll is 15 euros per payslip plus VAT 25.5 %, charged only in months when payroll is actually run. For allowances paid without salary, for example to an owner who draws none, ask us for a quote. Our other prices are on the price list.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Estonia daily allowance in 2026?

For a qualifying business trip, the tax-free maximum is 82 euros for each travel day that ends in Estonia, or for a shorter trip of at least 10 hours. It was 78 euros in 2025. Two free meals in a travel day halve it to 41 euros.

Do I get the Estonian per diem for a Tallinn day trip?

You can, if it is a business trip and the whole trip, from leaving home or work to getting back, lasts at least 10 hours. Under 10 hours, the domestic partial per diem of up to 25 euros applies if the trip lasts over 6 hours.

Does a buffet on the Tallinn ferry reduce the per diem?

A meal included in the ticket price counts as a free meal. One free meal does not reduce the foreign per diem; two in the same travel day, for example the ferry buffet and a client lunch, halve it to 41 euros. On a trip under 10 hours, one free meal halves the domestic partial per diem.

Sources

• Tax Administration: decision on tax-exempt allowances for travel expenses in 2026, sections 3, 4, 6, 12, 13 and 14 (in Finnish)
• Tax Administration: tax-exempt allowances in 2026 for business travel (English translation)
• Tax Administration: decision on tax-exempt travel allowances for 2025, section 13 (in Finnish)
• Tax Administration: reimbursements of travel expenses, detailed guidance, chapters 4, 8.3, 8.4, 8.6 and 13 (in Finnish)
• Tax Administration: reporting reimbursements of expenses to the Incomes Register (in Finnish)
• Tax Administration: wages, reporting data to the Incomes Register, deadlines (in Finnish)

Please note: this is general information about Finnish rules, not advice for your own situation, and the rules change. Ask us before you act on it.

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