Light entrepreneur bookkeeping in Finland: receipts and deductions

Karma Accounts · Published 9 October 2026

A light entrepreneur (kevytyrittäjä) who invoices through an invoicing service (laskutuspalvelu) without a business ID (Y-tunnus) usually keeps no business books: the service sells the work to your customer and handles the VAT on that sale. You still keep your own records, such as pay statements, receipts and a drive log, to check your tax return and claim deductions: three years from the start of the year after the tax year, says the Tax Administration (Verohallinto).

This article covers that case only. People with a business ID who use an invoicing service are sometimes also called light entrepreneurs; the toiminimi rules apply to them.

Why there are usually no business books

Under the Accounting Act (kirjanpitolaki, KPL 1:1 a §), a natural person keeps books for business or professional activity they carry on. When the invoice goes out in the service's name, the Tax Administration treats the service as the seller of your work, and if it pays you wages, you are a wage earner in taxation.

That changes when you register as an entrepreneur: the Tax Administration says registration brings the business tax return and bookkeeping. A light entrepreneur paid work compensation who must register for VAT is registered as an entrepreneur and given a business ID at the same time.

Wages or work compensation: what differs in 2026

The service pays you wages (palkka) or work compensation (työkorvaus), as agreed with it. Check which: the tax card and almost everything below depend on it.

	Wages	Work compensation
Tax card	tax card for wages	tax card for work compensation
VAT	never on your pay	registration if the VAT limit is passed
Automatic 750 euro deduction	yes	no
Tax-free travel allowances	possible, against a travel claim	never tax-free
Home office deduction	not from 2026	possible, as non-wage income

If you are in the prepayment register (ennakkoperintärekisteri), no tax is withheld from work compensation and you pay prepayment tax yourself.

Since the Supreme Administrative Court's decision KHO 2023:42, your taxable pay is what the customer paid, without VAT, less the service's fee and, when it is due, the employer's health insurance contribution. The service pays it on your wages when you are obliged to take YEL insurance, even if you have not yet taken it out; otherwise it pays none. In 2026 the contribution is 1.91 %. For work compensation, the taxable amount is the payment less the fee.

An example. You invoice 2 000 euros plus VAT, and we assume a 4 % fee. The service pays the VAT, and the 80 euro fee leaves 1 920 euros. If you are paid wages and are obliged to take YEL, your taxable wage is 1 884.02 euros and the contribution 35.98 euros (1.91 % of the wage); tax is withheld from the wage under your tax card.

Records to keep

Pay statements from the service, showing the amount invoiced, the fee and any health insurance contribution; a request to correct your taxation needs reliable evidence of these.
Your agreement with the service, which says wages or work compensation.
Receipts for work costs: tools, materials, the work share of your phone bill.
A drive log (ajopäiväkirja) if you use your own car for work.
Travel claims for any tax-free allowances the service paid you.

Nothing is attached to the tax return; the Tax Administration may ask for it. Keep it three years from the start of the year after the tax year, longer only in special cases listed in its decision. As a toiminimi, the Accounting Act applies: books 10 years from the end of the financial year, vouchers six years from the end of the year in which the financial year ended (KPL 2:10). More in our article on receipts and record keeping.

How work expenses are deducted

You claim costs of earning income (tulonhankkimiskulut) in your personal taxation, in OmaVero on the pre-completed tax return.

Wages. You get an automatic 750 euro deduction for costs of earning wage income, at most the amount of your wages (Income Tax Act, TVL 95 §). Report the costs it covers only if they exceed 750 euros a year. YEL premiums are a separate deduction and do not count towards the 750 euros.
Work compensation. The 750 euros does not apply. Report all your costs, even small ones, under "Muiden työtulojen tulonhankkimismenot".

Expected costs can go on your tax card. Wage-income costs carry over to the pre-completed return; work compensation costs must be reported again.

Expense	How it is handled
Own car to a customer	0.27 euros a km on the 2026 tax card, with a drive log
Tools, phone (work share)	costs of earning income
Materials for a job	see the note on reimbursements below
Marketing, rented workspace, insurance	your own costs; see below
The service's fee	not deductible; it is already taken off your taxable wages or work compensation
Health insurance contribution	not deductible, for the same reason
YEL premiums	deductible, under "Muut vähennykset"
Home office	formula deduction only for non-wage income

Two points to note. Only work trips count, such as to a customer, not travel between home and a regular workplace, and a trip the service reimbursed tax-free cannot be deducted. A receipt alone does not make a reimbursement tax-free: if you are paid wages, the service may reimburse direct work costs such as materials without withholding, but the reimbursement is taxable income and you deduct the cost. General costs such as marketing or rent cannot be run through the service; if it pays them, that is taxable income (in the wage case, taxable wages). Our article on the home office deduction has the 2026 amounts.

VAT

If you are paid wages, you are not liable for VAT on that pay. When the service invoices in its own name, it charges VAT on the full price billed to your customer, before its fee is deducted, and reports and pays it; your pay is worked out from the price without VAT. Work compensation stays outside VAT while it is at most 20 000 euros in both the current and the previous calendar year; liability starts when the limit is passed, and you must register. The VAT period is a month by default, a quarter or a year at lower turnover; see our article on the VAT registration limit. When YEL is compulsory is in our article on YEL.

When a toiminimi makes more sense

You can already deduct work costs, so the comparison is about fees, administration and VAT. If the service's fee is a percentage of what you invoice, it grows with your work: at 4 %, it is 400 euros a year on 10 000 euros invoiced and 1 600 euros on 40 000. A toiminimi pays no such fee but keeps books, files its own returns and, once registered for VAT, deducts the VAT on its purchases. Our article light entrepreneur or toiminimi sets the costs side by side.

What we do

When you move from an invoicing service to a toiminimi, we take over from the first month: monthly bookkeeping, VAT returns once you are registered, and the business tax return. Sole trader accounting starts from 69 euros a month plus VAT 25.5 %, software and year-end financial statements included, with no limit on receipts. We are based in Helsinki and work online across Finland. More on our sole trader accounting page.

Sources

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.

Starting a business?

We compare a toiminimi and an Oy with your numbers, go through the start-up notification with you before you file it, and keep the books from the first month. See company formation.

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