Frequently asked questions about the tax credit for electricity

No, you cannot choose yourself. The tax credit for electricity is primary in relation to the electricity subsidy. If you can claim a full tax credit for electricity based on your electric energy expenses, you are not entitled to an electricity subsidy. Also note that the full amount of the tax credit for electricity equals the deduction based on your electric energy costs, not €6,000 (the maximum amount of electricity charges that can be deducted).

If necessary, the Tax Administration transfers the unused electricity tax credit to your spouse in the same way as in all other cases of tax credit for household expenses. However, no transfer is made to the extent that the amount to be credited exceeds the maximum credit amount (i.e. €2,400 calculated from the €6,000 electricity charges per place of electricity use). Each spouse has a separate €100 credit threshold.

It depends on whether or not you are considered spouses in taxation. In taxation, a cohabiting couple is comparable to a married couple if they have previously been married to one another or if they have or have had a common child. For such cohabiting couples, the Tax Administration transfers the unused tax credit for electricity to the other cohabiting partner up to the maximum deduction of €2,400, calculated from the €6,000 electricity charges per place of electricity use). No transfer is made for other cohabitants, because they are not treated as a married couple in taxation.

No, you cannot. The tax credit for electricity is calculated separately for each place of electricity use (often the same as the electricity meter) and for one place of electricity use, no more than €6,000 in electric energy charges can be credited. Based on the electricity expenses of the same electricity meter, you cannot claim credit for €6,000 in electricity charges each. You can only get electricity tax credit for your permanent home.

Each person living in a shared flat must apply for electricity tax credit based on the electricity charges they pay themselves. It does not matter if the invoice is issued under the name of just one resident. One minimum limit of €2,000 and a maximum amount of €6,000 apply to each place of electricity use. If, for example, the electricity charges are €4,500 and each resident has paid one third of this, the amount of the electricity tax credit is (€4,500 - €2,000) x 60 = €1,500. Each may claim a credit of €500 (= €1,500/3). In addition, each has a separate €100 credit threshold.

Add together your electricity expenses for the old and the new apartment between 1 January and 30 April 2023. If you are moving, for example, on 1 March 2023, calculate your electricity expenses for the old home for the period 1 January - 28 February and your electricity charges for the new home for the period 1 March - 30 April.

The maximum amount of electricity tax credit is calculated based on a maximum of €6,000 in electricity charges for the period 1 January - 30 April 2023. The electricity charges for other months are not relevant. You can only get the credit for the part that exceeds €2,000. The maximum credit is (€6,000 - €2,000) x 60 = €2,400. Do note, however, that the tax credit for electricity and other deductions for household expenses have a common credit threshold of €100. The threshold is primarily deducted from the tax credit for other household expenses than electricity.

If your invoice period for electricity is not a calendar month, you and your electricity company must check your actual electricity consumption and the price you have paid for it between 1 January and 30 April 2023. It may also be possible to check it by using the mobile applications of electricity companies or Fingrid's Datahub portal. If you are unable to check these things, you can calculate the price by dividing the prices of the electricity consumed in proportion to the number of days. This only applies to invoices that are partly at the time before 1 January 2023 or after 30 April 2023.

You and the electricity company must check your actual electricity consumption between 1 January and 30 April 2023 and its price including VAT. Tax credit for electricity is made based on the actual consumption of electricity in the period January - April, even if the electricity invoice is paid at a different time. Please note that the balancing invoice must be paid by 31 December 2023, because the law is only in force until that date. Before the actual electricity consumption and actual payments are known for the period January - April, you can use the estimate when you request a change to your tax card. In the pre-completed tax return, you must report payments based on the actual consumption of electricity between 1 January and 30 April 2023. This means that the date on which you pay the electricity bills in 2023 is irrelevant.

It means that you can get the credit based on a maximum of €6,000 in expenses for electricity in one place of use. In other words, the maximum amount is not per person, unlike other tax credits for household expenses. If, for example, the electricity costs of a place of electricity use are €4,000 for the period 1 January - 30 April 2023 and two people have paid them fifty-fifty, the amount of the tax credit for electricity is (€4,000 - €2,000) x 60% = €1,200. In this case, each person gets a tax credit of €600, from which the credit threshold of €100 is subtracted if they do not have other deductible household expenses.

Tax credit for electricity and other credits for household expenses

Yes. You can get a maximum electricity tax credit of €2,400 from a single electricity meter if you have paid €6,000 for your electricity. In addition to the tax credit for electricity, a tax credit for household expenses, such as renovations, is granted separately according to the usual maximum amounts of household expenses (€2,250 or €3,500). Electricity tax credit and other credits for household expenses have a common €100 credit threshold, which is primarily deducted from other credits for household expenses than the credit for electricity.

Only individual taxpayers and death estates (electricity charges until the person's date of death) can receive electricity tax credit. Legal persons, such as limited liability companies, housing companies or real estate companies, are not entitled to the tax credit for electricity.

It does not matter in whose name the electricity contract is. Instead, the tax credit for electricity is claimed by the persons who are living in the apartment and who have contributed to the electricity payments for the apartment, in proportion to their contributions. This means that the electricity contract can be in the name of the lessor or other owner living elsewhere, for example. Persons treated as spouses in taxation can choose how they share the credit. 

You can get electricity tax credit based on the electricity charges you have paid, just like everyone else. The form of living does not matter in terms of getting the tax credit for electricity, it is only the electricity charges you have paid that matter.

No, you cannot get any tax credit for electricity for your parents' electricity payments.

You cannot get tax credit for electricity based on the housing company's maintenance charges.

The standard workspace deduction (€940 in 2023) has no effect on the tax credit for electricity. If you deduct your workspace expenses according to the actual expenses, including the electricity consumption in the workspace, you can still claim tax credit for electricity. In this case, the tax credit is calculated based on the amount from which the electricity consumption included in the workspace expenses was subtracted.

Yes, you can, if you do not deduct the electric car's charging costs in other income taxation. A taxi driver who charges their electric car from the electricity meter in their home deducts the charging costs from their taxi income and claims normal electricity tax credit for other electricity costs.

Yes, they can. If a foster care provider or a family daycare provider deducts the standard reimbursement of expenses as expenses for the production of income, they can claim a normal tax credit for electricity, even though the received reimbursement also includes the portion of the calculated living expenses of those to being cared for.

If the actual expenses are deducted as expenses for the production of income by a foster care provider or a family daycare provider, the amount of electricity expenses subtracted from the income affects the amount of the tax credit for electricity. In such a case, the electricity tax credit is calculated from the electricity charges that have not already been deducted as expenses for the production of income.

In houses and semi-detached houses having the legal form of a housing company, the shareholder living in the house can claim the credit on the condition that they pay the bill to the electricity company although the housing company is the contracting party. This requires that the housing company's shareholders are expected to pay for electricity under provisions included in the housing company’s articles of association, or under a decision made at the general meeting, or under some other agreement between the housing company’s shareholders.

Accordingly, the maintenance charge you pay to the housing company does not entitle you to the electricity credit even if the housing company uses the maintenance-charge money to pay electricity bills.

If your housing company has just one shareholder (or only one series of shares), you the shareholder may claim the credit based on the company's electricity expenses that you have paid relating to the dwelling where you live.

In the case of a one-family house or a two-family house legally owned by a housing company, getting the credit requires that the costs of electricity are not recorded as expenses in the housing company's books and as liabilities, which must later be paid back to the shareholder.