Food courier taxes in Finland 2026: deductions, VAT and tips
How a food courier is taxed depends on the contract with the app. With an employment contract, your pay is wages. Without one, it is trade income, and once you have a business ID you are a sole trader (toiminimi): you file a business tax return, pay prepayment tax, register for VAT when turnover passes 20 000 euros a year, and deduct your costs. The platform reports what it paid you to the Tax Administration either way.
Wages or trade income
| How you are paid | What you need |
|---|---|
| wages under an employment contract | a tax card for wages; the payer withholds tax |
| trade income, not in the prepayment register | a tax card for trade income; without one, the payer withholds 60 % |
| trade income, in the prepayment register | prepayments you pay yourself, and a business tax return |
The contract must match how the work is actually done: if the conditions are those of employment, the law treats it as employment whatever the contract says. Couriers who work through an invoicing service (light entrepreneurs) can also receive either wages or trade income, depending on the agreement.
If you are in the prepayment register, the prepayment is based on your latest tax assessment or, in your first year, your own estimate of the profit. How it works is in our article on prepayment tax.
What the platform reports
Platforms must report sellers of personal services to the Tax Administration once a year, and transporting goods counts as a personal service. The report shows the total paid to you, the fees the platform deducted, the bank account the money went to and any tax withheld. It adds no new tax, but the Tax Administration can compare it with your return, so every euro should be in your books.
VAT: the 20 000 euro limit
You must register for VAT once your turnover passes 20 000 euros in a calendar year. From then on, your delivery work carries VAT at the general rate, 25.5 %. When registration becomes compulsory is in our article on the VAT registration limit.
Tips. A tip the customer gives voluntarily is not payment for the service, so it carries no VAT. It is still taxable income. Book tips separately from delivery fees, so that the VAT is calculated only on the fees.
Your car: the driver's log decides
Keep a driver's log from the first day: the start and end of each trip, the places, the kilometres, the purpose, the odometer readings and the total kilometres for the year.
- More than 50 % of the kilometres for the business: the car is a business asset. You deduct its costs and depreciation, and the private share, worked out from the log, is added back.
- 50 % or less: the car stays a private asset. You deduct the business share of its costs, and on top of that an additional deduction that brings the total up to the tax-free kilometre allowance, 0.55 euros a kilometre in 2026. How the calculation works is in our article on mileage and per diems.
Driving from home to work is not business driving.
The VAT trap: fuel for a passenger car
If you are VAT-registered and deliver by passenger car, even a little private driving means you cannot deduct any of the VAT on the car or on its fuel, charging and repairs. With a van, a moped, a moped-registered scooter or a bicycle, you deduct the VAT on the business share of use, which you must be able to show, for example with the log. A motorcycle follows the passenger-car rule.
Other costs you can deduct
- Phone, bag, bike or e-bike. An item of 1 200 euros or less can be deducted in full in the year you buy it, up to 3 600 euros of such items a year. Something dearer is depreciated over several years, unless its useful life is three years or less.
- Phone plan and other mixed costs. Only the business share.
- YEL pension contributions, if you have YEL insurance; who needs it is in our article on YEL.
- A substitute courier. What you pay a substitute is deductible. If the substitute is not in the prepayment register, you must withhold tax according to their tax card, 60 % without one, and report the payment to the Incomes Register. If you employ the substitute, you also pay the employer's health insurance contribution.
When we do the books
For courier clients we book the platform's payout statements and your receipts every month, keep tips separate from delivery fees, and file the VAT returns. See our services.
Sources
- Tax Administration: working via a digital platform
- Tax Administration: selling goods and services on a digital platform (DAC7)
- Tax Administration: on the taxation of food couriers and their substitutes
- Tax Administration: rates of VAT
- Tax Administration: VAT guide, chapter 9.8.3 on tips, detailed guidance (in Finnish)
- Tax Administration: positions on business tax questions 2005, point 3 on tips (in Finnish)
- Tax Administration: entrepreneur's vehicle expenses
- Tax Administration: VAT on vehicles
- Tax Administration: depreciation and low-value assets
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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