Tax Guide

#The basics: you receive wages, not business income

As a light entrepreneur, your taxation works like an employee's: Truster invoices your customer, deducts the service fee, and pays you a wage. Withholding tax is deducted from your wage according to your tax card — you don't need to estimate advance taxes, file VAT returns, or keep books.

This is the biggest tax difference between light entrepreneurship and running your own business: a sole proprietor (toiminimi) pays advance tax on estimated income and files a tax return for business activity, while a light entrepreneur's taxes are handled automatically as part of the wage payment.

#Tax card and withholding tax

Truster retrieves your tax card automatically — you don't need to submit anything. Tax is withheld from every wage payment according to your card's percentage, and your income is reported to the Incomes Register, where Kela, the Tax Administration, and other authorities can see it in real time.

If your earnings increase or decrease during the year, update your tax percentage in OmaVero (the Finnish Tax Administration's online service) — the new card is applied automatically. The app always shows your running total for the year, so it's easy to keep track of your income threshold. This way, back taxes in January won't come as a surprise.

#Deductions: expenses, mileage and per diems

Work-related expenses reduce your taxable income. Truster makes collecting deductions easy: scan a receipt with the app, and the vendor, amount, and VAT are picked up automatically. Work-related driving is recorded as mileage allowances and business trips as per diems — the app calculates the reimbursements according to the current tax-free maximum rates.

Rule of thumb: if a purchase or trip arose because of billable work, record it. Tools, supplies, software, trips to see a client — it all accumulates in the app along with the receipts, and you can see the effect directly on your payslip.

If you've agreed that the customer covers the expenses, they're added to the invoice as separate line items — in that case they flow through the invoice rather than out of your own wage.

#VAT — handled for you

VAT is added to your invoices automatically at the correct rate, and Truster remits it — you don't need to register for VAT or file VAT returns. As you create an invoice, you already see both the amount excluding and including VAT, and our VAT calculator lets you check the figures anytime.

#YEL and taxation

Once your YEL insurance is active, its payments are tax-deductible. With Truster, the YEL deduction is factored into your wage payment automatically, so you benefit right away instead of waiting for your tax return. See our YEL guide for more on when the insurance becomes relevant for you.