Requesting a payment arrangement
If you have temporary financial difficulties, you can ask for a payment arrangement to get more time to pay your taxes and to decrease the size of the instalments. The Tax Administration will not send taxes included in a payment arrangement to the enforcement authorities for recovery as long as you follow the terms of the arrangement.
In addition, a payment arrangement prevents a business from being removed from the prepayment register and having their tax debts published on the tax debt register or on the protest list.
However, before you make the decision to ask for a payment arrangement, please consider if an arrangement is actually necessary. You can pay your taxes later than the original due date when you receive a payment reminder. Note that the reminder is included in your tax summary and not a separate letter.
You will receive 1–3 reminders before your overdue taxes are sent to the enforcement authorities for recovery. The number of reminders depends on whether you have other unpaid taxes. If your taxes are being sent to recovery by enforcement, you will be notified of it in advance on the final reminder.
What does a payment arrangement require?
You must ask for a payment arrangement yourself. You can only get a payment arrangement if
- your financial difficulties are temporary, not long-term
- you do not have taxes in recovery by enforcement
- you have filed all required tax returns and reports to the Incomes Register (earnings payment reports and employer’s separate reports)
- you have paid all taxes that were included in a previous payment arrangement with the Tax Administration
The Tax Administration may reject your request for a payment arrangement. If your request is rejected, you will receive a letter concerning the matter by post and in MyTax. If you have activated electronic messages from the authorities on Suomi.fi messages, the letter will be sent only to MyTax. You will be notified of this by email. The letter will explain why your request was rejected.
Payment arrangements are made for a maximum duration of 2 years, and the smallest instalment is €20. If any taxes are included in the payment arrangement that are about to expire, the duration can be shorter than 2 years. In these circumstances, the end date of the arrangement is set at 6 months before the expiration date.
A tax debt expires when 5 years have elapsed from the beginning of the calendar year following the year when the tax was imposed or collected or when it had fallen due. An exception to this is inheritance tax whose first instalment has fallen due on 1 January 2024 or later. In this case, the tax debt expires when 12 years have elapsed from the beginning of the calendar year following the year when the tax was imposed.
How do I ask for a payment arrangement?
Request a payment arrangement in MyTax. See the instructions: How to request a payment arrangement in MyTax.
If you cannot use MyTax, you can request a payment arrangement by calling our service number on 029 497 028 (standard call rates).
The Tax Administration can use automated decision-making in the context of resolving tax matters. This means that a decision concerning your tax matter may be based on partial or full use of an automated decision-making system. Read more about automated decision-making at the Tax Administration (only in finnish).
Read instructions on how to request a payment arrangement for different tax types:
You can only request a payment arrangement for back taxes after your tax assessment has ended. You can see the end date of your tax assessment on your tax decision or in MyTax. However, your assessment end date may change if you or your spouse make changes to the tax return or if the Tax Administration receives other information that affects your tax assessment. In this case, you will receive a new tax decision.
A party to an estate of a deceased person can request a payment arrangement on behalf of the estate if they have a power of attorney signed by all the parties to the estate. The parties may also authorise someone outside the estate to ask for the arrangement.
You can request a payment arrangement for car tax. Please note, however, that you must pay all the car tax included in the payment arrangement before you can register your vehicle. Only a registered filer of car tax can register a vehicle before they have paid the car tax in full.
You can request a payment arrangement for inheritance tax. If you request a payment arrangement for some other type of tax, inheritance tax will be automatically included in the arrangement.
The due date of the first instalment of inheritance tax affects how much time you will have to pay the tax and when the unpaid tax will be transferred to the enforcement authorities for recovery. See the instructions that apply to you based on the due date:
The due date of the first instalment is 1 January 2024 or later
Your inheritance tax will not be transferred to the enforcement authorities for recovery until 10 years have passed since the first instalment’s due date. During this time, you can pay inheritance tax without a payment arrangement.
If you request a payment arrangement for inheritance tax, you will have to pay the full amount of the tax within 2 years.
In both cases, late-payment interest will be imposed on the tax starting from the day following the due date up until the date when the last payment is made. In addition, any tax refunds you may receive will be used to cover your unpaid inheritance taxes as normal.
The due date of the first instalment is before 1 January 2024
Your inheritance tax will not be transferred to the enforcement authorities for recovery until 2 years have passed since the first instalment’s due date. During this time, you can pay inheritance tax without a payment arrangement.
If you request a payment arrangement for inheritance tax, you will have to pay the full amount of the tax within 2 years.
In both cases, late-payment interest will be imposed on the tax starting from the day following the due date up until the date when the last payment is made. In addition, any tax refunds you may receive will be used to cover your unpaid inheritance taxes as normal.
If the following conditions are met, you can request a payment arrangement only for the first instalment of tax:
- You have been granted the tax relief for the transfer of assets to the next generation in your gift tax or inheritance tax assessment.
- The tax is divided into no more than 10 annual payment instalments.
When will the payment arrangement come into force?
The Tax Administration will process your request within a week of its arrival. The payment arrangement enters into force as soon as the Tax Administration has accepted your request. If your payment arrangement is accepted automatically, it can enter into force already the day after you submitted the request.
Once the Tax Administration has processed your payment arrangement request, you will receive a letter by post and in MyTax. If you have activated electronic messages from the authorities on Suomi.fi messages, the letter will be sent only to MyTax. You will be notified of its arrival by email.
How do I pay taxes in a payment arrangement?
You will receive a payment plan and payment instructions for the taxes in the arrangement by post. You will also receive the payment plan in MyTax. See the instructions: How to find letters, tax decisions and tax certificates in MyTax.
Follow the payment plan and pay the taxes in equal-sized monthly instalments. Always use the payment arrangement reference number when making the payments. The first due date will be within one month from the date when your request was granted. The length of the payment plan or the size of the instalments cannot be changed afterwards.
However, you can make payments in your arrangement at a faster rate or in bigger instalments than what is required by your payment plan. Always remember to use the payment arrangement’s reference number.
Continue paying your other taxes not included in the arrangement normally, following the instructions you have received on your tax decision or in MyTax. Please note that self-assessed taxes that are not included in a payment arrangement cannot be paid in advance before the start of the month in which they fall due.
Late-payment interest
A payment arrangement does not affect the amount of late-payment interest. Even if the payment date of a tax is postponed due to a payment arrangement, late-payment interest is still imposed on the tax from the day after the original due date up until the date when the tax is paid. In 2024, the rate of late-payment interest is 7.5% (inheritance tax) or 11% (other tax types).
Can my payment arrangement lapse?
When a payment arrangement is in force, the Tax Administration's automatic system makes regular checks on how the taxpayer makes the payments. Your payment arrangement will lapse if
- you do not follow the schedule of the payment plan
- you leave other taxes unpaid while you are on the plan
- you do not file your tax returns, such as tax returns on your self-assessed taxes or income taxes.
The automatic system will notify you if your payment arrangement lapses. A notice on the lapse of the payment arrangement will also be shown in MyTax.
Reinstating a lapsed payment arrangement
If your payment arrangement lapses, you can ask for it to be reinstated within 10 days of the lapse. In order to reinstate the payment arrangement, you need to remedy the negligence related to it and pay the overdue payments. Go to MyTax to check what type of negligence is in question.
Please note that you must ask for the reinstatement of a payment arrangement yourself. The Tax Administration will not reinstate it automatically even if you remedied the negligence in time.
Ask for the reinstatement of a lapsed payment arrangement in MyTax. Click the Request the reinstatement of the payment arrangement link on the MyTax homepage under Payment arrangement balance.
If you cannot use MyTax, you can ask for the reinstatement of a payment arrangement by calling our service number on 029 497 028 (standard call rates). The 10-day deadline also applies to reinstatement requests made by phone.
Once the Tax Administration has processed your request, you will receive a letter. The reinstatement of a payment arrangement does not extend the duration of the arrangement. However, the amount of the last instalment may change due to interest. If you reinstate your payment arrangement by phone, the reference number of the payment arrangement will change. If you reinstate the arrangement in MyTax, the reference number will remain the same.
Please note that you cannot reinstate a payment arrangement if you have already paid all the taxes included in the arrangement. If you need more time for paying new taxes, request a new payment arrangement.
If your payment arrangement lapses, you cannot request a new payment arrangement until the taxes that were included in your lapsed arrangement have been paid in full.
If your payment arrangement lapses, you can ask for it to be reinstated within 10 days of the lapse. If you do not ask for the payment arrangement to be reinstated or if your request is not accepted, the Tax Administration will transfer the unpaid taxes to enforcement for recovery. However, you may avoid enforced recovery if you can pay the taxes or other payments included in the lapsed payment arrangement immediately after the lapse.
Unpaid VAT, withholdings and employer's health insurance contributions may be published on the public protest list. The tax debts of business enterprises can also be published in the tax debt register.
Note: Inheritance taxes are an exception. Inheritance taxes included in a lapsed payment arrangement will not be sent to enforced recovery until 2 or 10 years after the due date of the first instalment. The 10-year time limit is for taxes whose first instalment’s due date is 1 January 2024 or later. If the first instalment’s due date is earlier, the tax can se sent to enforced recovery after 2 years from the due date.
You can check in MyTax if your unpaid taxes have already been sent to recovery by enforcement. There is no exact timetable for when taxes are sent for recovery.
When taxes are sent for recovery, you must pay the tax to the enforcement authorities. Contact the enforcement authorities if you have questions about the payment of taxes in enforced recovery.
Tax refunds or other payments can be used on taxes in payment arrangements
If your tax refund is used on taxes included in a payment arrangement, this decreases the total amount of taxes included in the arrangement. After this, you can choose how to continue with your payment arrangement:
- You can pay the next instalment normally according to the payment plan. If the amount of refund used is enough to cover one or multiple instalments, your payment arrangement may end sooner than originally planned.
- Alternatively, you can consider the use of your refund as a payment made, and subtract this amount from your next payment. Remember to continue following the payment arrangement as normal after this. This way, your payment arrangement will end according to the original payment plan.
If you make a payment intended for other taxes, but you do not have taxes on which it could be used at the time of payment, it will be used on your taxes in a payment arrangement.
You can see the payment schedule of your payment arrangement and check the remaining balance in MyTax.
Frequently asked questions
Check your accepted payment plan to make sure that the tax is really included in your payment arrangement. If it is, you do not need to pay the e-invoice but you can delete it. Instead, you will pay the tax as part of your payment arrangement and use the payment arrangement’s reference number.
After the Tax Administration has finished your tax assessment for 2023, you can ask for a payment arrangement for that year’s back taxes. You can see the end date of your tax assessment on your tax decision or in MyTax.
We recommend that you do not submit an application for payment arrangement until it is absolutely clear that you cannot pay the tax by its due date.
If you are able to pay part of the tax, we recommend that you do so. Send your partial payment by the due date of the tax. After that, the remaining part of the tax will then be the amount for which you submit your application for a payment arrangement.
You will only have to pay late-payment interest on the remaining part of the tax.
When we calculate the sizes of the instalments that you will have to pay, we use the date when the arrangement is approved as the start date. In other words, the start date is not the same as the due date of the tax.
We recommend that you log in to MyTax to send your application for a payment arrangement. See our guidance: How to request a payment arrangement in MyTax.
You cannot change the contents of an active payment arrangement.
For example, you cannot ask the Tax Administration to remove taxes from the arrangement or add new taxes to it.
In addition, you cannot change the number of payment instalments. However, you can make payments in an accelerated schedule, which may reduce the overall number of your payment instalments. Read more: Can I make bigger or more frequent payments than required by the payment plan?
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