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Filing and paying excise duty – instructions for regular and casual filers

Excise duties are self-assessed taxes. The filing and payment schedule depends on whether the company is liable to pay excise duty regularly or casually. 

In excise taxation, regular taxpayers include the following:

  • authorised warehouse keepers
  • registered consignees
  • tax representatives
  • parties registered as liable for excise duty, such as
    • electricity network operators, electricity producers and small electricity producers
    • users of fuel peat and users of tall oil
    • producers of biofuel oil
    • operators of gas networks and parties using natural gas or biogas for tax-exempt purposes
      • A party using natural gas or biogas for tax-exempt purposes can register as a registered gas user. A distribution network operator can also register as a taxpayer and request tax exemption for a gas distribution network in the same way as for a transmission network. However, registration is not mandatory.
    • certified consignees
    • mining operators (mining companies)

Regular taxpayers need an authorisation for their operations and are obliged to register as liable for excise duty.

Excise duty authorisations

Parties with registration obligation

Filing and payment instructions for regular taxpayers

Not all companies have regular operations that would require excise duty registration or an excise duty authorisation. In that case, the company is not a regular taxpayer for purposes of excise taxation. However, if the company imports an individual batch of products subject to excise duty into Finland, it is regarded as a casual taxpayer.

Casual taxpayers include:

  • temporary registered consignees
    • The products are moved under a duty suspension arrangement using the Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS).
  • distance buyers
    • Private individuals wishing to make a distance purchase. This applies to situations where a private individual orders and receives products subject to EU-harmonised excise duty that have been released for consumption, i.e. alcohol or tobacco, and arranges the transport themselves. 
  • consignees of products subject to a national excise duty
    • For example, a private individual who orders/receives soft drinks. Advance notices concerning beverage containers are also filed under this role.
  • distance sellers
    • A distance seller is a seller in another EU country who sells products subject to excise duty to private individuals in Finland and arranges their delivery to Finland. The distance seller can deliver the products themselves or hire a delivery company to do it.
  • temporary certified consignees
    • Products released for consumption are moved using the Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS).
  • temporary certified consignors
    • does not file an excise duty return

Filing and payment instructions for casual taxpayers

Regular taxpayer: How to file and pay excise duties

Casual taxpayer: How to take care of excise duties, advance notices and one-off guarantees

Filing and paying excise duty in MyTax 

File and pay excise duties in MyTax.  

In some cases, you must pay a one-off guarantee for your excise duties in advance. You can also pay the guarantee in MyTax. 

Make sure to use the correct account number when you pay

If you pay excise duty in your online bank, please note that you must pay your taxes to the Tax Administration’s Danske Bank or Nordea account. You can find the bank account details in MyTax. 

You must pay excise duties using the reference number for self-assessed taxes. You can also pay value added tax with the same reference number. Your reference number is unique and it is always the same when you pay your self-assessed taxes. You can check your reference number for self-assessed taxes in MyTax. 

Where can I find the bank account number and the reference?

The correct reference number allocates your payment to self-assessed taxes. You cannot allocate your payment precisely to excise duties: the payment will be used for all your self-assessed taxes in the order of due dates, from earliest to latest. The payment can also be used to cover your other overdue taxes.

Using a payment for different taxes.

How to pay taxes in MyTax 

You must file the tax return electronically 

Excise duty returns must be filed electronically. You can file the returns in MyTax. MyTax instructs you how to fill in the fields correctly. You cannot file on paper unless you have a special reason for doing so. Filing on paper is allowed, for example, if electronic filing is impossible due to technical problems or if an individual taxpayer or a foreign filer does not have access to the identification technology needed. There is no need to separately inform the Tax Administration of the reason.  

How to log in to e-services 

You must identify yourself to our e-services before you can log in and start taking care of your personal taxes or your company’s tax matters. 

How to log in to MyTax and other e-services 

How to grant an authorisation for tax matters 

You can authorise an agent to take care of your personal tax matters or your company’s taxes on your behalf. Please note: If you manage excise duties on behalf on someone else and you have the “Managing matters concerning excise taxation” authorisation, you cannot pay the excise duty in MyTax but must go to your online bank. 

How to grant a Suomi.fi authorisation for tax matters 

Report if your operations change or end 

If your authorisation details change or if your operations requiring registration end, you must inform the Tax Administration immediately. 

Authorisations and registrations for excise taxation 

If you file or pay late 

If you file excise duty information late, you must pay a late-filing penalty. If you pay your excise duty after the due date, you must also pay interest. 

If you file or pay excise duties late (available in Finnish and Swedish, link to Finnish) 

Read more: 

Filing and payment — other pages

Key terms:

Page last updated 3/15/2024