Marriage and divorce
Being married or single has relatively little importance as regards Finnish taxation because married couples are not taxed jointly.
However, family relations do have an effect on some tax deductions and on the taxpayer-specific completion date of tax assessment. In turn, the end date of tax assessment has an effect on the dates when you can receive tax refunds, and on the due dates for back taxes.
Taxes are assessed in Finland for every taxpayer individually: only the taxpayer’s own wages from employment, other earned income and any capital income are included in the assessment. However, some tax deductions are different when you have a spouse.
Definition of 'spouse' for tax purposes
In tax assessment, the concept of spouse is not always identical to what we understand by ‘spouse’ in everyday life. Whether or not two individuals are spouses for tax purposes may have an impact on the application of tax rules and certain deductions.
Who are spouses for tax purposes?
Two individuals who are married to or in a registered partnership with each other are regarded as spouses for tax purposes. They are spouses for tax purposes starting from the tax year during which they got married or their partnership was registered.
In addition, unmarried partners are spouses for tax purposes if they have or have had a child together or if they were previously married to each other.
When are spouses not considered spouses for tax purposes?
Spouses are not spouses for tax purposes if they have separated and lived apart for the whole tax year or if they have permanently moved apart during the tax year.
Further, spouses are not regarded as spouses for tax purposes if one of them is or both of them are non-resident taxpayers in Finland.
In general, you do not need to inform the Tax Administration of changes in family relations
The Finnish Digital and Population Data Services Agency (the DVV) sends up-to-date information on taxpayers' marital status to the Tax Administration, as well as information on the birth of their children and on a divorce. When co-habitant partners have a child together, the two partners are entered into the Tax Administration’s database as spouses.
Instead, you need to provide the following information separately to the Tax Administration, because the information is not available from the DVV:
- Separation from the partner in cohabitation
- Separation of the two spouses of a shared business enterprise, involving plans to live separately on a permanent basis.
To inform the Tax Administration of the above, write the facts about your changes in family relations under Taxpayer details in MyTax or complete Form 50A on paper. You will receive a pre-completed tax return next spring. Please verify all the pre-completed information, and if anything needs updating or is missing, complete the forms as appropriate.
If you and your spouse had conducted business together, operated an agricultural farm or a forestry enterprise together, you can read more about how separation affects the assessment of taxes in “The tax treatment of spouses who share a business” – Yrittäjäpuolisot verotuksessa (in Finnish and Swedish).
