Finland · Tax regime
Tax at Source for Foreign Key Employees
This has improved substantially. The rate fell from 32% to 25% on 1 January 2026. The duration is now 84 months (7 years), up from 48 months since the end of 2023. As of 1 January 2026, it also extends to returning Finnish citizens for work starting on or after that date, capped at 60 months.
While Sweden raised its citizenship bar and Norway tightened its exit tax, Finland moved the other way. It cut its key employee rate from 32% to 25%, extended the duration to seven years, opened the route to returning Finns, and reduced the top marginal rate. This is the clearest counter-trend in the Nordics, and it has gone almost entirely unremarked in the advisory market.
Qualifying routes
Minimum cash salary per month. 25% final withholding for up to 84 months.
No minimum salary.
New as of 1 January 2026. Capped at 60 months rather than 84.
The facts
- Minimum
- €5.8k
- Total landed cost
- No fee. The 25% final withholding rate compares to a top marginal rate of roughly 52%. On EUR 300,000 a year, that saves roughly EUR 80,000 annually, for seven years.
- Route type
- Tax regime, not a visa
- Physical presence
- Finnish tax residence and genuine employment.
- Family
- Individual to the employee
- Permanent residency
- Separate track.
- Citizenship
- 8 years, or 5 years if you meet the language requirement.
- Language test
- Finnish or Swedish language skills. Meeting them cuts the residence requirement from 8 years to 5.
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- You cannot have been a resident taxpayer in Finland during the 5 calendar years before starting.The minimum cash salary is EUR 5,800/month. There is no minimum for higher-education teaching and research.The work must require special expertise.You must apply for a tax card within 90 days of starting.
- Any memo citing 32% or 48 months is out of date. The rate is 25% from 1 January 2026, and the duration has been 84 months since the end of 2023.
- It is a FINAL withholding. There is no tax return, and no deductions of any kind against the covered income.
- You must not have been a resident taxpayer in Finland during the 5 calendar years before starting.
- Apply for the tax card within 90 days of starting work.
- Existing card holders get 25% automatically. No new card is needed, and employers may apply it on their own initiative to wages paid from 1 January 2026.
- The work must genuinely require special expertise. The EUR 5,800 threshold is necessary, but it is not enough on its own.
- Returning Finnish citizens get 60 months, not 84.