Restaurant accounting in Finland 2026: VAT and daily sales
Restaurant accounting in Finland comes down to two things: putting each sale at the right VAT rate, and tying every euro that reaches the bank back to the till. In 2026 food and restaurant service carry 13.5 % VAT and alcohol 25.5 %, often on the same bill. The till's daily report (Z report, kassaraportti), with the itemisation behind it, is the voucher for the day's sales, and every card, lunch-benefit and delivery-platform payout is checked against it.
VAT rates for a restaurant in 2026
The reduced rate fell from 14 % to 13.5 % on 1 January 2026.
| What you sell | VAT in 2026 |
|---|---|
| Meals and soft drinks served in the restaurant or café | 13.5 % |
| Catering at the customer's premises | 13.5 % |
| Takeaway food | 13.5 % |
| Food you sell with home delivery, delivery fee included | 13.5 % |
| A delivery service sold on its own | 25.5 % |
| Alcoholic drinks: beer, wine, spirits, mixed drinks | 25.5 % |
| Tobacco products and bottle deposits | 25.5 % |
The Tax Administration (Verohallinto) treats a meal and the alcohol sold with it as separate products, so wine with dinner is 25.5 % on the same receipt as the food at 13.5 %. A set menu with wine at one price has to be split between the rates: set the split up in the till, not afterwards. A cocktail is 25.5 % as a whole unless the alcohol and the mixer are booked to separate accounts. More in our article on VAT rates in Finland 2026.
The till's daily report is your sales voucher
Every entry in the books rests on a dated voucher, numbered systematically or otherwise identified, and a sales voucher must show what was sold and when (Accounting Act, KPL 2:5). The Accounting Board (kirjanpitolautakunta) accepts a daily or monthly sales report itemised by product as a restaurant's own voucher, while the customer gets the receipt. In practice that is the Z report with the till's product breakdown, and it should split the day's sales:
- by VAT rate: 13.5 % and 25.5 %
- by payment method: cash, card, lunch-benefit cards and apps such as ePassi, Edenred and Smartum, and any delivery-platform orders that run through the till
Cash payments must be recorded without delay and in daily order (KPL 2:4); other entries may generally be made by month, but the books must be ready in time for the VAT return and the owners' oversight. A business whose turnover for the financial year exceeds 10 000 euros must, as a rule, offer a receipt for cash and card payments made in person, showing among other things its business ID, the receipt number, what was sold, the amount paid and the VAT, or its base, by rate (Act 658/2013, sections 2–4). How long to keep them is in our article on receipts and record keeping.
Card payments arrive net
The payment provider pays out card sales under its agreement, often several days in one sum, with its fees either deducted from the payout or invoiced separately. We book the sales from the Z report at their full amount, put the card share on a receivable account, clear the receivable when the payout arrives and book the fees as an expense. VAT is worked out on the price the customer paid, and the financial statements may not net income against expenses (KPL 3:3), so sales are never booked at what landed in the bank. The receivable's balance should equal the payments not yet paid out; trace any difference through the settlement reports, allowing for timing, fees, refunds and other adjustments.
Lunch-benefit payments
A meal paid with a lunch-benefit (ruokaetu) card or app is your sale like any other, at 13.5 % when you serve it. It is a receivable until it is paid out, and who pays it out depends on the payment method: a lunch-benefit card used like a bank card can come with your card payouts, an app payment from the benefit provider. In the Tax Administration's example of an electronic lunch voucher, the amount the restaurant then collects from the issuer is not a second sale and carries no VAT, while a separate service fee the issuer charges the restaurant carries VAT at 25.5 %. Track the receivables by whoever actually pays them out, and match each payout to the till.
Delivery platforms such as Wolt
Whether the food is sold to the customer through the platform, or to the platform, depends on the agreement and on how the business actually works: in whose name it is sold, and whom the customer understands to be buying from. When the platform acts in the restaurant's name, the restaurant pays VAT on the full sale, and the platform charges VAT at the general rate, 25.5 %, on its commission even though the food is 13.5 %.
In that model, book the restaurant's own sales before the platform's commission is taken off, the commission invoice as an expense with its VAT deducted, and the payout against the receivable. Separate refunds and the platform's own charges, and check the orders were not already booked from the till: the mistake we see most is orders booked twice, once through the till and again from the platform's report. If you hire a courier company yourself, it invoices you at 25.5 %, while food and delivery go to the customer at 13.5 %.
Tips
A voluntary tip paid straight to the staff is outside VAT; a service charge the customer cannot refuse carries VAT. For income tax, a tip (juomaraha, palveluraha) is the recipient's taxable income, whether voluntary or added to the bill, and the customer withholds no tax. When a voluntary tip is based on work done in employment, the employer reports it to the Incomes Register (tulorekisteri) as wages, under income type 101 or 216. The employer withholds no tax on it, because the employee pays it through tax collection (ennakonkanto), but pays the employer's social security contributions.
Card tips reach your account with the card sales, so book the tips that belong to the staff apart from sales: as a receivable from the payment provider and a liability to the staff, cleared when you pay them out, with a record of who receives what. Payroll takes care of the reporting.
Cash
Count the cash at closing and compare it with the expected balance: the opening float plus cash takings, less cash paid out and cash taken to the bank or another till. Write down and explain any difference the same day. Book each deposit as a transfer from the cash account to the bank, never as new sales. The Accounting Board recommends reconciling cash with the books at least monthly; counting daily is what makes a difference explainable. A cash account that goes negative in the books means something is missing or wrong: check the opening balance, cash put in and taken out, payment methods and dates.
Stock and staff meals
Food and drink in stock are raw materials (vaihto-omaisuus). Count them as at the last day of the financial year (if you count on another day, adjust for what came in and went out in between): what was used is the year's cost, and the cost of what is left moves to the next year, at a lower value if it would now cost less to buy or would sell for less (Business Income Tax Act, EVL 28 §). Unless you show otherwise, stock is assumed used in the order it was bought (EVL 14 §). The count list is the voucher.
A meal the employer provides is a taxable benefit for the employee, valued at 7.48 euros a meal in 2026 for hotel and restaurant staff, less anything the employee pays for it. On meals given to staff free of charge, the restaurant also pays VAT as own use (oman käytön vero), at 13.5 %, calculated on the direct and indirect costs of the meals, not on the benefit value; the indirect costs may be taken as 22 % of the direct ones. When the employee pays for the meal, it is a sale instead. The employer's side of pay is in our article on employer costs.
What we do
We are an accounting firm in Helsinki and keep the books of restaurants whose sales come from the till, card terminals and delivery platforms: we book the daily reports, reconcile every payout to them and file the VAT return. A limited company pays 199 euros a month up to 240 000 euros of turnover and 249 euros above, a sole trader from 69 euros a month, and payroll is 15 euros per payslip, all plus VAT 25.5 %. The software and the year-end are included, with no limit on receipts. More on limited company accounting and sole trader accounting.
Sources
- Tax Administration: rates of VAT, including the restaurant home-delivery example
- Tax Administration: VAT guide, chapters 1.3.3, 5.2.2, 9.1 and 9.8.3 (in Finnish)
- Tax Administration: VAT in the tourism sector, chapter 2.3 on meals with alcohol, mixed drinks and bottle deposits (in Finnish)
- Tax Administration: VAT on commission trade and intermediary services (in Finnish)
- Tax Administration: VAT on vouchers, the lunch voucher example (in Finnish)
- Tax Administration: VAT on staff meals (in Finnish)
- Tax Administration: in-kind benefits 2026, sections 11 and 12
- Incomes Register: reporting special situations, section 5.13 on voluntary tips (in Finnish)
- Tax Administration: positions on business tax questions 2005, point 3 on tips (in Finnish)
- Tax Administration: instructions for filing the tax return, other income
- Tax Administration: play fair, don't forget the receipt
- Tax Administration: the obligation to offer a receipt (in Finnish)
- Finlex: Act on the obligation to offer a receipt in cash trade 658/2013, sections 2 and 4 (in Finnish)
- Finlex: Accounting Act 1336/1997, chapter 2 sections 4 and 5, chapter 3 section 3 (in Finnish)
- Finlex: Business Income Tax Act 360/1968, sections 10, 14 and 28 (in Finnish)
- Accounting Board: general instruction on accounting methods and materials, 20.4.2021, sections 2.3.4, 3.2, 3.8 and 5.5 (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.
VAT returns off your desk?
We keep the books, file the VAT return by its due date and tell you the amount before it is due. A sole trader pays from 69 € a month and a limited company from 199 €, plus VAT.
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