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Finland daily allowance 2026: 54 €, 25 €, abroad and 0.55 €/km

Karma Accounts · Published 11 September 2026 · Updated 13 October 2026

The tax-free maximum daily allowance (päiväraha) in Finland in 2026 is 54 euros for a work trip of more than 10 hours and 25 euros for more than 6 hours. Abroad the maximum depends on the country, for example 70 euros in Sweden and 78 euros in Germany, and the kilometre allowance (kilometrikorvaus) is up to 0.55 euros a km. An employer, your own Oy included, pays these against a travel claim; a sole trader may instead claim an additional deduction under its own conditions.

Who can be paid tax-free

An employer pays these allowances to an employee, including you as an Oy owner working for your company, even in a year without salary, if each trip qualifies and you write a travel claim for the company's books. A business trip is a temporary trip to a special place of work (erityinen työntekemispaikka) outside your regular workplace, such as a client's premises or a trade fair; the daily commute never counts. A client's premises can become your regular workplace if you work there regularly.

The decision sets only tax-free maximums. Whether and how much is paid depends on the employment terms; the decision does not oblige an employer to pay. Any excess is taxable salary, and an allowance for a trip that does not qualify is salary in full.

Domestic per diem: the rules

A per diem covers extra meal and living costs; tickets and hotels are reimbursed separately against receipts.

• Distance. The place of work must be more than 15 kilometres from where the trip starts, usually home or the regular workplace, by the shortest available route, and more than 5 kilometres from both.
• Time. If the other conditions are met, up to 25 euros may be paid tax-free for a trip of more than 6 and at most 10 hours, and up to 54 euros for more than 10 hours.
• Longer trips. These count in 24-hour travel days from departure, with up to 54 euros for each. For time past the last full travel day, up to 25 euros may be paid if it is at least 2 hours, or up to 54 euros if over 6.
• Free meals. Two free meals halve a full per diem, and one halves a partial one. Breakfast included in the hotel or ticket price does not count.

Meal allowance instead. The meal allowance is tax-free only for a trip from which no per diem is paid, for example because the time or distance conditions are not met, and only if work keeps you from your usual eating place at the meal break. The maximum is 13.50 euros, or 27.00 euros when work requires you to eat twice outside your usual eating place.

Does this trip qualify?

• 6 hours, 8.00 to 14.00, client 40 km away. No per diem: the trip must last more than 6 hours. Up to 13.50 euros of meal allowance may be paid tax-free if work keeps you from your usual eating place.
• 10.5 hours, 8.00 to 18.30, client 60 km away, client buys lunch. Up to 54 euros tax-free. One free meal does not halve a full per diem; two would.
• Overnight, Monday 8.00 to Tuesday 19.00. One full travel day (up to 54 euros) and 11 hours past it, over 6, so up to another 54 euros: 108 euros at most.
• Day trip to Stockholm, 9 hours. Under 10 hours abroad, so the domestic per diem rules apply, time and distance conditions included: up to 25 euros, not Sweden's 70.

Foreign per diems 2026 (ulkomaan päivärahat)

The same decision sets a maximum for each country, with separate rates for some cities and regions. Common destinations are below; the return day, free meals and a worked Berlin example are in foreign daily allowance 2026.

How the rate is chosen:

• Where the travel day ends. Each 24-hour travel day gets the rate of the country, region or city where it ends. If it ends on a plane or ship, the rate is that of the country it last left, or on the way out of Finland, where it first arrives.
• At least 10 hours. For a trip abroad of under 10 hours in total, the domestic per diem rules apply, including their time and distance conditions.
• Coming home. If the trip runs more than 2 hours past the last full travel day that ended abroad, or aboard a ship or aircraft departing from abroad, up to half of that day's foreign rate may be paid; more than 10 hours, up to the full rate. If the last full day ended in Finland, the remaining time follows the domestic rules.
• Free meals. Two free meals, including meals in the ticket or hotel price, halve the foreign rate. A breakfast included in the hotel room price does not count as a meal.

In the Tax Administration's example, you leave home on Sunday at 17.00 and get back on Wednesday at 20.00. Days 1 and 2 end in Germany; the trip runs more than 10 hours past Tuesday 17.00, so day 3 also gets the German rate, 3 × 78 = 234 euros. Day 3 ends in Finland, and its 3 extra hours allow a domestic partial per diem of 25 euros. Every other country is in the Tax Administration's 2026 decision.

Kilometre allowance: 0.55 euros

In your own car, or another car your employer has not provided, the maximum is 0.55 euros a kilometre plus the additions in the table; rarer ones, which apply only when the work requires them, cover caravans, heavy loads, dogs and forest roads. The per diem distance limits do not apply.

The travel claim (matkalasku)

Tax-free treatment rests on the employee's travel claim. The Prepayment Decree (EPA 17 §) requires the lines marked *; the rest make it easy to check. Receipts go with it, and for a cost without one, such as parking, your signature on the claim (an electronic one is fine) confirms the amount.

• Traveller and employer: [name], [company Oy, business ID]
• Purpose of the trip*: [client meeting, trade fair]
• Destination*: [street address, town, country]
• Route, where needed*: [Helsinki – Tampere – Helsinki]
• Means of travel*: [own car, registration number / train / flight]
• Started*: [date, time, from home or workplace]
• Ended*: [date, time]
• Abroad, country or region (city where it has its own rate) where each travel day ended*: [day 1 Germany, day 2 Germany]
• Kilometres and rate*: [240 km × 0.55 = 132.00 euros], additions: [none]
• Per diems: [1 partial, 25.00 euros]; free meals received: [none]
• Meal allowances: [none]
• Receipts attached: [train ticket, hotel invoice]; costs without a receipt: [parking 4.00 euros]
• Total: [amount], date and signature

Record on the claim any free meals a client gave you; the employer may not know. Keep the claim and receipts in the books. Although tax-free, the allowances are reported to the Incomes Register by the fifth day of the month after payment.

A toiminimi: a deduction instead of an allowance

A sole trader cannot pay themselves these allowances. Actual costs such as fuel, tickets and hotels are business expenses; on top of them you may claim an additional deduction, lisävähennys, in the business tax return, never in the books. It has its own conditions and is reduced by related costs already deducted.

• Car. If you or your spouse own the car and business driving is at most half of its kilometres in the tax year, the deduction is 0.55 euros per business kilometre, plus any additions, less car costs already booked. No time or distance limit applies, but driving between home and your permanent place of business is private.
• Per diem. For a temporary trip outside your usual area of operation, the deduction is at most the employee per diem maximum, 25 or 54 euros in Finland, less extra living costs already booked, under the same time and distance rules. There is no meal allowance equivalent.

For example, 240 business kilometres in a mostly private car with 20.00 euros of fuel booked give a car deduction of 132.00 less 20.00, so 112.00 euros, and a trip of over 6 hours a per diem deduction of up to 25 euros if no meal costs are booked. If actual costs are higher, you deduct those instead. For a car that belongs to the business, only its actual costs are deductible; see car in the business or in your own name.

The car deduction needs a driving log or other reliable documentation: for each business drive the times, start and end point (and route where needed), kilometres and purpose, plus the car's total kilometres for the year, without which there is no additional deduction. For per diems, record daily where you went, how far and the actual times.

What we do

We check each travel claim against these rules before the allowances are paid, report them to the Incomes Register with the payroll and claim a toiminimi's additional deduction. Payroll is 15 euros per payslip and sole trader accounting from 69 euros a month, plus VAT 25.5 %. We are based in Helsinki and work online across Finland. If your company pays travel allowances or plans to, book an introduction.

Sources

• Tax Administration: decision on tax-exempt allowances for travel expenses in 2026, with the country list (in Finnish)
• Tax Administration: tax-exempt allowances in 2026 for business travel (English translation)
• Tax Administration: kilometre and per diem allowances
• Tax Administration: reimbursements of travel expenses, detailed guidance, chapters 3, 8 and 13 (in Finnish)
• Tax Administration: reporting reimbursements of expenses to the Incomes Register
• Tax Administration: temporary work trips and the additional deduction
• Tax Administration: entrepreneur's vehicle expenses
• Tax Administration: travel expense deductions of sole traders, detailed guidance (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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