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Lunch benefit settlements: restaurant bookkeeping and VAT 2026

Karma Accounts · Published 10 November 2026

A meal paid with a lunch benefit (lounasetu, ravintolaetu) through a mobile benefit app or card is booked like any other sale: at its full price, on the day you serve it, at 13.5 % VAT for the food and 25.5 % for anything at the general rate, such as a bottle deposit, as the till splits it. The benefit provider pays you later, net of its service fee. Until then the amount is a receivable from the provider. When the settlement (tilitys) arrives, the bank receipt and the fee clear that receivable. The fee is a separate expense with its own VAT treatment. It never reduces your sales or the VAT on them.

The till's daily report, card payouts, delivery platforms, tips and cash are in our restaurant accounting guide.

How a lunch benefit payment works

The employee pays with the provider's app or card, and any remainder with their own money. The provider later pays you several days' payments in one sum, less its fee, with a settlement report listing payments, refunds and fees.

For VAT, the Tax Administration (Verohallinto) treats a lunch benefit app as a voucher (arvoseteli) comparable to a lunch voucher. In ruling KHO:2025:46 the Supreme Administrative Court held that the restaurant sells the meal to the employee, not to the employer or the provider. A lunch voucher that also pays for things at 25.5 %, such as a bottle deposit or takeaway cutlery, is a multi-purpose voucher: loading it is not a sale, and VAT falls due when the meal is served against it (VAT Act, AVL 18 e and 18 f §; voucher guidance, chapter 3.2).

When the sale is taxed: the day you serve the meal

VAT falls due when the service is performed (AVL 15 §) and is reported for that calendar month (135 a §), whenever the provider pays. A lunch served on 30 October belongs on October's VAT return even if the money arrives in November.

The VAT split comes from your till, not from the provider: the Z report shows the meal at 13.5 % and a deposit at 25.5 %. The part of the bill the employee pays with their own money is also your sale with VAT (voucher guidance, example 6). The provider's payment to you is not a second sale: in the Tax Administration's example, no VAT is due on what the restaurant collects from the issuer.

A business with turnover of at most 500 000 euros a year may use cash-based VAT (maksuperusteinen alv) and report sales for the month the price is received (AVL 137 §). This article follows the main rule.

The provider's fee: a separate expense with its own VAT

The fee may be invoiced separately or kept back from the payout. Either way it does not reduce the tax base of your sales (voucher guidance, chapters 4 and 5.1): you pay VAT on the full price of the meal and book the fee as an expense.

The VAT on the fee depends on what the provider actually sells you:

Which row applies depends on the contract and on what the provider is selling, so read the settlement report or invoice rather than guess. If it shows VAT at 25.5 %, deduct it. If it says the fee is exempt, there is nothing to deduct. If it shows neither, ask the provider for an invoice: VAT can only be deducted from an invoice or a document that serves as one (AVL 102 a §). During the financial year, the deduction goes on the return for the month in which you were charged (AVL 141 and 142 §), so book each fee on the date of the statement or invoice that charges it. At the end of the financial year, a fee for a service already received but not yet charged is deducted in the year's last month (142 § 2 mom.), and the expense belongs to that year (KPL 3:3). A 5 January statement for the fees on late-December payments therefore goes back to December when the year ends on 31 December.

Booking the receivable and the payout

1. Daily, from the Z report: debit "receivable from benefit provider" with the benefit-app payments; credit sales and VAT by rate. Keep one receivable account per provider.
2. When the payout arrives: debit the bank, the fee and any deductible VAT on it; credit the receivable with the gross payments the settlement covers.
3. At month end: the receivable equals the payments not yet paid out.

The settlement report, or the provider's separate invoice for the fee, is the voucher for the entry (Accounting Act, KPL 2:5). Income and expenses may not be netted (KPL 3:3), so the payout never goes to sales. A benefit card used through the card terminal is often settled with your card payments instead: track each receivable by whoever actually pays it.

Worked example: one month of benefit settlements

Café Oy accepts one provider's benefit app. In October 2026 its Z reports show these app payments, already net of one 12.50-euro lunch refunded on 28 October:

On 20 October the provider pays 2 109.60 euros for 1–15 October: payments of 2 210.00 less a fee of 80.00 + 20.40 VAT. On 5 November it pays 2 267.25 euros for 16–31 October: 2 355.10 less 70.00 + 17.85 VAT.

October sales (sum of the daily entries):

Payout on 20 October:

Payout on 5 November:

On 31 October the receivable is 2 355.10 euros, exactly the payments of 16–31 October. October's VAT return carries 545.10 euros of sales VAT and deducts 20.40; the 17.85 goes on November's return. October's return and payment are due on Monday 14 December 2026, as the 12th is a Saturday.

Reconciling the provider report, the till and the bank

If the till and the provider differ, compare day by day: usually a payment was keyed as card or cash, a refund went through one system only, or a payment fell on the other side of midnight. If the bank differs, look for a payout still in transit or a fee invoiced separately.

Common mistakes

• Booking the net payout as sales: sales and VAT too low, the fee's VAT never deducted.
• The wrong VAT on the fee: deducting VAT the invoice does not show, missing 25.5 % that it does show, or treating the fee as a discount on sales.
• Booking the sale when the money arrives: end-of-October meals go on October's return.
• Refunds in one system only: a refund through the app must also show in the till, so that sales and VAT fall with it (AVL 78 §).
• Counting twice: a payment booked from the Z report and again from the provider report, or the employee's own top-up booked to the provider's receivable.

The employer side, briefly

For the employee, an app or card balance that the employer loads at 8.80–14.00 euros a meal, at most 14.00 euros a working day, and that pays only for meals and meal delivery, is valued at 75 % of its face value and at least 8.80 euros a working day: see fringe benefits in 2026. The sport and culture benefit (liikunta- ja kulttuurietu) is tax-free up to 540 euros a year in 2026. It pays for the employee's own exercise and cultural visits such as concerts, so a restaurant meets it only if it sells those too; its settlements are booked the same way. See tax-free employee benefits and, for the rates, VAT rates in Finland 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What fees are deducted from lunch benefit settlements?

The provider's service fee, kept back from the payout or invoiced separately, and any refunds made through the app. Book the fee as an expense with its own VAT, never as a reduction of sales. Delivery-platform payouts are covered in the restaurant accounting guide.

How does a restaurant reconcile lunch benefit settlements with bank deposits?

Match the provider's report to the Z reports, then check that each deposit equals the payments it covers less the fees and refunds kept back in the same report. A fee invoiced separately is paid on its own and is not in the deposit. The receivable left at month end should equal the payments still unpaid.

Is a meal paid with a lunch benefit booked as a sale?

Yes, at its full price and VAT rate on the day you serve it, like a meal paid in cash.

Is there VAT on the benefit provider's fee?

A voucher provider's service fee carries 25.5 % VAT in the Tax Administration's guidance; a payment service fee is exempt. The provider's invoice or statement shows which.

What we do

We keep the books of Finnish limited companies, restaurants among them: we book the daily Z reports and reconcile every benefit, card and platform settlement to them before the VAT return. See limited company accounting or request a quote.

Sources

• Tax Administration: VAT on vouchers, VH/961/00.01.00/2026, chapters 2, 3.2, 4, 5.1 and 7, examples 6 and 7, KHO:2025:46 (in Finnish)
• Tax Administration: VAT rates
• Tax Administration: when to file and pay VAT
• Tax Administration: in-kind benefits 2026, VH/6275/00.01.00/2025, sections 13 and 14
• Finlex: Value Added Tax Act 1501/1993, sections 15, 18 e, 18 f, 41, 42, 78, 84, 85, 102 a, 135 a, 137, 141 and 142 (in Finnish)
• Finlex: Accounting Act 1336/1997, chapter 2 section 5 and chapter 3 section 3 (in Finnish)
• Finlex: Act amending the Income Tax Act 873/2026, section 69 (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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