How much income tax should a sole trader in Finland set aside?

When you work for an employer, tax comes off every payslip. When you work for yourself (as a courier, a driver or any sole trader) nothing comes off: the tax on your profit is due later, all at once, unless you pay it along the way. The fix is simple. Know roughly what you’ll owe, put that money aside each month, and ideally pay it to Vero as you go.

What the tax is made of

A Finnish sole trader’s profit is taxed as earned income, with the same scale as a salary. If you also have a salary, the two are added together. For 2026 the parts are:

Part	2026
State income tax	Progressive: 12.64% on the first €22,000 of taxable income, rising in steps to 37.5% above €52,100
Municipal tax	Your municipality’s rate. The average is 7.57%
Health insurance contribution	1.10%
Daily allowance contribution	0.88% once salary and YEL income reach €17,255
Yle tax	2.5% of income above €15,150, at most €160
Church tax	Only if you’re a member of a church, at its rate

Deductions bring it down:

• Entrepreneur deduction: 5% of your business profit is tax-free.
• Basic deduction: up to €4,265 off municipal taxable income, shrinking as income grows.
• Earned income credit: 18% of work income, up to €3,430, taken straight off the tax. It phases out between €35,000 and €50,550.
• YEL contributions: once you have YEL pension insurance, what you pay is deductible.

An example: €24,000 profit, no salary

This is what VatMainder works out for a sole trader with €24,000 of profit in 2026, no salary, the average municipal rate of 7.57% and no YEL insurance yet:

State income tax	€2,765
Municipal tax (7.57%)	€1,656
Health insurance (1.1%)	€241
Yle tax	€160
Earned income credit	−€3,430
Estimated tax for 2026	€1,391

That’s €116 a month to put aside, spread over the year. The earned income credit does a lot of work at this level. As profit grows, the credit phases out and the state tax steps up, so each extra euro is taxed harder than the average suggests.

YEL: the other cost to plan for

Once your business work is worth €9,423 or more a year, YEL pension insurance is compulsory. The contribution in 2026 is 24.4% of your YEL income, with a 22% discount for your first 48 months in business. It’s a real monthly cost on top of tax, but it’s deductible, so it lowers the tax itself.

Pay as you go: prepayments

Instead of saving the money and paying it all after your tax assessment, you can ask Vero for prepayments (ennakkovero). In MyTax, go to Tax cards and prepayments, request a prepayment for the year, and enter your expected business income. Vero sends a decision with monthly instalments. Seasonal work can pay its instalments during the season.

If the year went better than planned, you can top up with an additional prepayment:

• you can ask for one from December of the tax year;
• with a due date by 31 January, no interest is added;
• the minimum is €170.

Whatever isn’t covered becomes back tax after the assessment, with interest on top. Paying ahead avoids that.

How VatMainder helps (Pro)

With Pro, VatMainder estimates your income tax for the year from what you’ve recorded, using Finland’s 2026 rules: the lines above, the entrepreneur deduction, YEL and its discount for new businesses. It never uses a profit lower than what the year has already made.

• Put away €X a month: what’s still uncovered, split over the months left in the year, with a check that you’re on track.
• Prepayment tip: with no salary, the app suggests the prepayment to ask Vero for and opens MyTax.
• Salary too: add your latest payslip and the app projects your salary and withholding for the year. It tells you whether your tax card covers the business, and walks you through updating it in MyTax.

Outside Finland, the estimate uses the average rate you expect to pay, from last year’s tax decision.

It’s an estimate, not tax advice: it assumes all profit is earned income, no losses from earlier years and only the automatic deductions. Vero’s prepayment instructions and additional prepayment pages have the details.