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Tax-exempt allowances in 2025 for business travel

Date of issue
11/13/2024
Record no.
VH/6768/00.01.00/2024
Validity
1/1/2025 - Until further notice

Decision of the Tax Administration on tax-exempt allowances for travel expenses in 2024

— English translation —

Under § 73 and § 75.2 of Income Tax Act (tuloverolaki) of 30 Dec 1992 (1535/1992), including the amendments by Act no 504/2010 and by Act no 1246/2013, the Finnish Tax Administration has set out the following:

§ 1

The criteria for and amounts of allowances for travel expenses, to be considered exempt from tax in the 2025 taxation, shall be as prescribed in this decision below.

§ 2

Travel expenses are the costs arising from a taxpayer's business travel in the territory of Finland or other countries.

§ 3

Business trips mean any short-term trips by an employee in performing his duties to a place where he temporarily performs working tasks or conducts business, distinct from his regular place of work. If, because of the nature of his work, the employee has no regular place of work, any short trip by employee from home to a temporary place of employment is a business trip.

Furthermore, trips under the following circumstances are also regarded as business trips:

  1. Location of the workplace is elsewhere than inside the facilities or establishments that belong to the employer or to a closely related corporate entity within the employer’s sphere of interest;
  2. Work falls into the definition of temporary work under § 72 a, Income Tax Act (tuloverolaki);
  3. Location is at a distance exceeding 100 kilometres from the taxpayer’s home;
  4. Taxpayer has stayed overnight, due to the trip to the workplace, in temporary quarters, which are necessary because of the distant location of the workplace.

Nevertheless, travelling or commuting between home and regular place of work is not considered a 'business trip' or 'travelling in business'. This also concerns weekend travel or other similar travel between home and a temporary place of employment, during a longer work assignment spanning several work weeks.

If it is typical for the line of work that the location of employment changes frequently because of the short-term nature of work in the particular sector, daily travel from home to a temporary 2 location will only make the employee eligible to receive allowances for 'travel expenses proper' referred to in §7, §8 and §9 below, if the employee has no main or regular place of work. The employee shall, however, also be entitled to meal money (§14) if he has no opportunity to benefit from meal services arranged by his employer on the temporary location or in its immediate vicinity.

§ 4

Travel made otherwise than as referred to in section 3, paragraphs 1 and 2, by an employee to his secondary workplace, only makes the employee eligible to receive allowance for 'travel expenses proper' (see §7, §8 and §9), and to receive allowance for accommodation (see §16). Secondary workplace means such ordinary establishment of the employer, or another corporation within the same sphere of interests with the employer, which is situated in another area, or another state, than the employee’s primary, main or regular place of work.

Travelling to and from an employee’s separate accommodation and his secondary workplace does not entitle the employee to receive allowance for 'travel expenses proper' when the separate accommodation is necessary because of the location of the secondary workplace.

§ 5

The main or regular place of work is the employee’s permanent place of employment. If, owing to the itinerant nature of his work, the employee has no permanent place of employment, the main or regular place of work is considered the place where he receives his assignments and keeps the clothes, tools or materials that he uses in his work, or any other location with a similar function in respect of the performance of his duties.

§ 6

A day of travel means a period of no more than 24 hours beginning from the time that the employee sets out on a business trip from his workplace or home. A day of travel ends when the employee returns from a business trip to his workplace or home.

§ 7

Allowance for travel expenses proper to be paid for business travel means reimbursement for tickets for travel, seats or sleeping car berths and other comparable expenses directly related to travel.

Allowance for travel expenses proper also includes costs for the transport of tools and other such equipment that the employee must take with him.

§ 8

The maximum allowance for travel expenses, payable for the business travel of the employee using transport other than a motor vehicle owned or held by him is the amount spent on travel expenses proper, demonstrated with tickets provided by the transport company or other reliable proof.

§ 9

The maximum allowance for an employee’s business travel using a means of transport owned or held by him shall be:

Table of maximum allowance for an employee’s business travel
Vehicle (means of transport) Maximum allowance amounts per Km
Passenger car

59 cents, raised by:

  • 10 cents for towing a trailer.
  • 15 cents, if performance of the duties-at-hand requires towing a caravan attached to the car.
  • 30 cents, if performance of duties requires towing a mobile canteen or other comparable heavy load attached to the car.
  • 4 cents for transporting machinery or other items in the car; weighing over 80 kilograms, or of large size.
  • 4 cents, if performance of duties requires the employee to transport a dog in the car
  • 13 cents for actual kilometers driven on forest roads or road construction sites closed to other traffic if performance of duties so requires.
Motorboat, up to 50 hp 103 cents
Motorboat, more than 50 hp 149 cents
Snowmobile 142 cents
All-terrain quadbike 134 cents
Motorcycle 45 cents
Moped 24 cents
Other means of transport 14 cents.

If other persons, for whose transport the employer is responsible, travel in a vehicle owned or held by the employee, the maximum allowance referred to in paragraph 1 is raised by 4 cents per Km and passenger.

If an employee, enjoying the company car benefit known as the limited benefit (käyttöetu; förmån att använda bil), referred to in the official decision of the Tax Administration on benefits-in-kind, uses the company car for business travel and pays for the energy to run the vehicle, he is entitled to a kilometer allowance of no more than 12 cents per Km.

§ 10

Per diem, i.e. daily allowance means coverage for a reasonable increase in meal expenses and other living expenses incurred by the employee during business travel. Thus, per diem does not include allowance for travel expenses proper or accommodation expenses.

§ 11

Per diem is payable only for such a day when the temporary place of employment is located more than 15 Kms away from either the employee’s main or regular workplace or his home, depending on where the travel begins. Moreover, the temporary place of employment should be more than 5 Kms away both from the main or regular workplace and from home.

§ 12

Depending on the duration of a business trip, the maximum per diem amounts are the following

Table of maximum per diem amounts
Duration of trip Maximum per diem
More than 6 hours (partial amount) €24.00
More than 10 hours (full amount) €53.00
and, if travel time exceeds the last full day of travel:
- by at least 2 hours
€24.00

- by more than 6 hours

€53.00

For any day of travel, when the employee receives free meals, or meals included with the travel ticket, the maximum per diem is half the amount specified in paragraph 1. Free meals comprise two free meals in the case of full per diem, and one free meal in the case of partial per diem.

§ 13

The maximum per diems payable for business travel outside Finland are as follows:

Table of maximum per diems payable for business travel outside Finland
Country or region Maximum per diem €
Afghanistan 61.00
Albania 89.00
Algeria 82.00
Andorra 65.00
Angola 69.00
Antiqua and Barbuda 95.00
Argentina 45.00
Armenia 59.00
Aruba 69.00
Australia 77.00
Austria 82.00
Azerbaidzhan 69.00
Azores 70.00
Bahamas 89.00
Bahrain 78.00
Bangladesh 56.00
Barbados 79.00
Belarus 50.00
Belgium 79.00
Belize 52.00
Benin 47.00
Bermuda 89.00
Bhutan 37.00
Bolivia 48.00
Bosnia and Hercegovina 62.00
Botswana 42.00
Brazil 70.00
Brunei 45.00
Bulgaria 66.00
Burkina Faso 41.00
Burundi 55.00
Cambodia 66.00
Cameroon 62.00
Canada 80.00
Canary Islands 73.00
Cape Verde 45.00
Central African Republic 102.00
Chad 52.00
Chile 55.00
China 73.00
- Hong Kong 83.00
Colombia 61.00
Comoros 46.00
Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) 66.00
Congo, Democratic Republic of
(Congo-Kinshasa)
58.00
Cook Islands 73.00
Costa Rica 64.00
Côte d’Ivoire, Ivory Coast 83.00
Croatia 71.00
Cuba 64.00
Curaçao 57.00
Cyprus 66.00
Czech Republic 89.00
Denmark 80.00
Djibouti 83.00
Dominica 60.00
Dominican Republic 50.00
East Timor 47.00
Ecuador 62.00
Egypt 51.00
El Salvador 58.00
Eritrea 97.00
Estonia 78.00
Eswatini 40.00
Ethiopia 46.00
Faroe Islands 62.00
Fiji 54.00
France 79.00
Gabon 95.00
Gambia 44.00
Georgia 46.00
Germany 77.00
Ghana 41.00
Greece 70.00
Greenland 63.00
Grenada 72.00
Guadeloupe 54.00
Guatemala 77.00
Guinea 85.00
Guinea-Bissau 45.00
Guyana 51.00
Haiti 79.00
Honduras 58.00
Hungary 69.00
Iceland 93.00
India 61.00
Indonesia 56.00
Iran 119.00
Iraq 71.00
Ireland 79.00
Israel 89.00
Italy 77.00
Ivory Coast, Côte d’Ivoire 83.00
Jamaica 61.00
Japan 69.00
Jordania 88.00
Kazakhstan 60.00
Kenya 80.00
Korea, Democratic People's
Republic (North Korea)
67.00
Korea,
Republic of (South Korea)
85.00
Kosovo 61.00
Kuwait 84.00
Kyrgystan 43.00
Laos 34.00
Latvia 73.00
Lebanon 95.00
Lesotho 37.00
Liberia 59.00
Libya 52.00
Liechtenstein 81.00
Lithuania 72.00
Luxembourg 79.00
Madagascar 46.00
Madeira 69.00
Malawi 61.00
Malaysia 54.00
Maldives 66.00
Mali 49.00
Malta 72.00
Marshall Islands 67.00
Martinique 57.00
Mauritania 49.00
Mauritius 49.00
Mexico 73.00
Micronesia 60.00
Moldova 76.00
Monaco 92.00
Mongolia 44.00
Montenegro 68.00
Morocco 72.00
Mozambique 52.00
Myanmar (formerly Burma) 71.00
Namibia 39.00
Nepal 51.00
Netherlands 86.00
New Zealand 77.00
Nicaragua 50.00
Niger 56.00
Nigeria 68.00
North Macedonia 66.00
Norway 70.00
Oman 72.00
Pakistan 33.00
Palau 107.00
Palestinian territory 89.00
Panama 60.00
Papua New Guinea 67.00
Paraguay 34.00
Peru 50.00
Philippines 70.00
Poland 81.00
Portugal 72.00
Puerto Rico 71.00
Qatar 75.00
Romania 71.00
Russian Federation 73.00
- Moscow 91.00
- St. Petersburg 83.00
Rwanda 33.00
Saint Kitts and Nevis 65.00
Saint Lucia 83.00
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 85.00
Samoa 61.00
San Marino 60.00
Sao Tome and Principe 119.00
Saudi Arabia 78.00
Senegal 57.00
Serbia 78.00
Seychelles 81.00
Sierra Leone 58.00
Singapore 82.00
Slovakia 81.00
Slovenia 73.00
Solomon Islands 62.00
Somalia 88.00
South Africa 54.00
South Sudan 119.00
Spain 75.00
Sri Lanka 31.00
Sudan 119.00
Suriname 104.00
Sweden 68.00
Switzerland 96.00
Syria 78.00
Tadzhikistan 35.00
Taiwan 67.00
Tanzania 49.00
Thailand 65.00
Togo 63.00
Tonga 65.00
Trinidad and Tobago 80.00
Tunisia 65.00
Turkey 41.00
- Istanbul 42.00
Turkmenistan 86.00
Uganda 49.00
Ukraine 57.00
United Arab Emirates 72.00
United Kingdom 83.00
- London and Edinburgh 87.00
United States 88.00
- New York, Los Angeles, Washington 95.00
Uruguay 55.00
Uzbekistan 33.00
Vanuatu 72.00
Venezuela 119.00
Viet Nam 69.00
Virgin Islands (USA) 63.00
Yemen 97.00
Zimbabwe 119.00
Zambia 46.00
Any other country, not specified above 52.00

The per diem allowance concerns one day of travel i.e. 24 hours from the beginning of a business trip or 24 hours from the end of the preceding day of travel.

The maximum amount of per diem is defined on the basis of the country or region where the day of foreign travel ends. If the day of travel ends on a ship or airplane, the amount should be based on the country from where the ship or airplane last departed or, if leaving Finland, where it will first arrive.

Upon returning to Finland, the employee is entitled to half of the per diem for foreign travel paid for the last completed day of travel if the length of the business trip exceeds, by more than two hours, the last full day of travel that ended in foreign territory or in a ship or airplane departing from such territory.

If the length of a business trip exceeds, by more than ten hours, the last full day of travel, which ended in foreign territory or in a ship or airplane departing from such a territory, the employee is entitled to a per diem for foreign travel for the last full day of travel. The maximum amount payable for a day of travel or part thereof beginning after the employee returns to Finland must be determined as prescribed above in § 12.

For any business trip in foreign countries lasting a minimum of 10 hours, the employee is entitled to the confirmed amount for the relevant country. If the total duration of the trip is shorter than 10 hours the amount should be paid in accordance with the provisions and amounts applicable to domestic travel.

If the employee receives free meals or meals included in the price of a ticket or a hotel room the per diem must be reduced by 50 percent. For the purposes of calculation of per diems for foreign travel, two free meals constitute ‘free meals’.

If a business trip outside Finnish territory is made, the work being done under exceptional circumstances at the request of an employer located in Finland, and if the employee returns to Finnish territory for the night, and no per diem is being paid under § 12 above, the maximum allowance for business travel, by derogation from subparagraph 1 above is €18.00.

§ 14

Meal money can only be paid if no per diem is being paid, and the work assignment prevents the employee from having a meal at his normal eating-place during his meal break. The maximum amount is confirmed as €13.25.

If the employee has to have two meals at a place other than his normal eating-place during a business trip and no per diem is being paid the maximum meal money equals €26.50.

§ 15

The maximum allowance for accommodation payable over and above the per diem is the amount shown on a receipt or other reliable written proof provided by the accommodation establishment.

§ 16

The maximum allowance for accommodation payable, over and above the allowance for travel to the secondary workplace, is the amount shown on a receipt provided by the accommodation establishment, or a reasonable amount shown on other reliable written proof.

§ 17

An allowance for night travel is payable only if at least 4 hours (during a day of travel for which the employee is entitled to a per diem) are between the hours of 09:00 PM and 07:00 AM and if the employer does not arrange any free accommodation for the employee or pay him allowance for accommodation or for a sleeping car berth. The maximum allowance for night travel is €16.00.

§ 18

Seafarers: The foregoing provisions on allowances for travel expenses are applicable to the tax-exempt allowances under the law, payable to taxpayers earning seafarer’s income.

§ 19

This decision comes into force on January 1, 2025 and is applicable to business travel or part thereof taking place in 2025.

AttachmentFurther explanation of the list of foreign territories where per diem allowances are paid (pdf)

Page last updated 11/13/2024