> Quick Answer: A sole child inheriting €100,000.00 from a parent pays €8,000.00 in Finnish perintövero for 2026 -- an effective rate of 8.00%. The share falls in the Class I €60,000–€200,000 band, which charges a base amount of €2,800.00 plus 13% of the excess over €60,000.00: €2,800.00 + 13% × €40,000.00 = €8,000.00. The same €100,000.00 inherited by a sibling or an unrelated person falls into Class II and costs €18,600.00 instead.
Overview
Finland's perintövero is an inheritance tax charged on the heir, not on the estate. That distinction matters more than almost anything else about it. Each beneficiary is assessed separately on the value of their own share, at rates that depend on how closely they were related to the deceased, and with their own personal deduction. Splitting an estate across more heirs therefore reduces the total tax bill, because each share is walked up its own bracket table from the bottom rather than the whole estate being taxed as one lump.
Two tax classes determine the rate schedule:
- Class I (I veroluokka) -- the spouse, direct descendants (children, grandchildren), direct ascendants (parents, grandparents), and a registered partner.
- Class II (II veroluokka) -- everyone else: siblings, nieces and nephews, more distant relatives, and unrelated beneficiaries. The rates here are far steeper. On a €100,000 share the Class II bill is more than double the Class I bill.
Below €30,000, no perintövero is charged at all. Above that floor, each class has a five-band table stated in the form the statute uses: a base amount for the band, plus a marginal rate applied to the excess over the band's floor.
Two personal deductions come off an heir's share before the table is applied. The surviving spouse deducts €90,000 (puolisovähennys). A direct descendant who was under 18 at the date of death and is the deceased's nearest heir deducts €60,000 (alaikäisyysvähennys). No heir receives both.
Finally, and this is the step most often missed by people estimating a bill for a married couple, there is avio-oikeus -- the marital right. Where the spouses had a marital right to each other's property and no prenuptial agreement excluded it, the net marital property is notionally halved in the ositus (the division of matrimonial assets) before the deceased's estate is even computed. The surviving spouse's own half was always theirs; it is not inherited and is not taxed. Only the remaining half passes to the heirs. A €600,000 marital estate is therefore a €300,000 taxable estate, and getting this wrong roughly doubles every figure downstream of it.
This calculator is denominated in euros (€), Finland's currency.
How This Is Calculated
| Taxable Inheritance | Base Amount | Rate On Excess |
|---|---|---|
| €30,000 – €40,000 | €100 | 7% |
| €40,000 – €60,000 | €800 | 10% |
| €60,000 – €200,000 | €2,800 | 13% |
| €200,000 – €1,000,000 | €21,000 | 16% |
| Over €1,000,000 | €149,000 | 19% |
| Taxable Inheritance | Base Amount | Rate On Excess |
| --- | --- | --- |
| €30,000 – €40,000 | €100 | 19% |
| €40,000 – €60,000 | €2,000 | 25% |
| €60,000 – €200,000 | €7,000 | 29% |
| €200,000 – €1,000,000 | €47,600 | 31% |
| Over €1,000,000 | €295,600 | 33% |
Worked Example
Using the calculator's default inputs:
- Total Estate Value: €100,000.00
- Avio-Oikeus Marital Split: not applied
- This Heir's Share: 100%
- Tax Class: Class I
- Personal Deduction: none
Step by step:
- Distributable estate: €100,000.00 (no marital split).
- Inherited share: 100% × €100,000.00 = €100,000.00.
- Taxable inheritance: €100,000.00 − €0.00 = €100,000.00.
- Band: €60,000–€200,000 in Class I, base €2,800.00 at 13% on the excess.
- Tax: €2,800.00 + 13% × (€100,000.00 − €60,000.00) = €2,800.00 + €5,200.00 = €8,000.00.
- Net inheritance: €100,000.00 − €8,000.00 = €92,000.00, an effective rate of 8.00%.
A second example, showing avio-oikeus and both personal deductions. A married couple's combined net marital property is €600,000.00. One spouse dies, leaving a surviving spouse and one minor child who take equal shares.
- Marital split: the surviving spouse's own half, €300,000.00, leaves in the ositus. It is not inherited and not taxed.
- Distributable estate: the remaining €300,000.00.
- Each heir's share: 50% × €300,000.00 = €150,000.00 each.
- Surviving spouse: €150,000.00 − €90,000.00 spousal deduction = €60,000.00 taxable. That sits in the €40,000–€60,000 band: €800.00 + 10% × €20,000.00 = €2,800.00.
- Minor child: €150,000.00 − €60,000.00 minor-child deduction = €90,000.00 taxable. That sits in the €60,000–€200,000 band: €2,800.00 + 13% × €30,000.00 = €6,700.00.
- Combined family bill: €2,800.00 + €6,700.00 = €9,500.00 on a €600,000.00 marital estate -- an effective 1.58%.
That last figure shows how much the three structural features are worth together. Without the marital split, without the deductions, and taxed as a single €600,000.00 share, the bill would have been €21,000.00 + 16% × €400,000.00 = €85,000.00.
What This Does Not Account For
- The exact bracket tables are medium-confidence. The top-level structure of this calculator -- two classes, the €30,000 floor, the €90,000 spousal deduction, the €60,000 minor-child deduction, and the avio-oikeus halving -- is confirmed on vero.fi. The detailed band tables above (each band's base amount and marginal rate) were cross-corroborated by two independent secondary sources agreeing figure-for-figure, but were not independently confirmed against a single directly fetched official vero.fi bracket table during this build. They are internally consistent, in that every base amount chains exactly from the band below it, which a transcription error would almost certainly break. Even so, treat the output as a good estimate rather than a substitute for your perintöverotuspäätös, and confirm the current table on vero.fi before acting on a large number.
- Valuing the estate. This calculator takes the net estate value as an input. Establishing it -- fair market valuation of property, housing company shares, unlisted holdings and personal effects, less debts, funeral costs and estate administration costs -- is the substantial part of a real perukirja (estate inventory deed), and is not modeled here.
- The lesket asumisoikeus (surviving spouse's right of residence) and usufruct valuations. A surviving spouse's statutory right to keep living in the shared home, and any life interest or usufruct reserved over estate assets, reduce the taxable value of the affected shares under specific valuation rules. This calculator does not model them.
- Uneven and conditional distributions. The calculator applies a single flat share percentage per heir. Specific bequests, lakiosa (the statutory forced share for direct descendants), disclaimers, and conditional or staged distributions under a will all change who is taxed on what.
- Business succession relief (sukupolvenvaihdoshuojennus). Substantial relief is available where a farm or business is inherited and the heir continues to operate it. That relief is out of scope here.
- Life insurance proceeds and gifts made during life. Death benefits paid to a beneficiary and gifts received from the deceased within three years of death are drawn into the inheritance tax calculation under separate rules that this calculator does not apply.
- International estates. Where the deceased or an heir was resident abroad, or estate assets sit in another country, Finnish taxing rights and any double-taxation relief depend on the applicable treaty and on residence tests that are outside this calculator's scope.
- Payment timing and installments. Perintövero is assessed after the perukirja is filed and may in some cases be paid in installments. This calculator computes the liability, not the schedule or any interest.
Common Pitfalls
- Taxing the whole marital estate. If the spouses had a marital right to each other's property, half of it belongs to the survivor and never enters the estate at all. Skipping the ositus step roughly doubles the estimated bill for a married couple.
- Treating perintövero as an estate-level tax. It is charged per heir, on each heir's own share. Four children inheriting €100,000 each pay €8,000 apiece -- €32,000 in total -- while one child inheriting €400,000 alone pays €21,000 + 16% × €200,000 = €53,000. Same estate, very different tax.
- Assuming a spouse pays nothing. The €90,000 spousal deduction is generous but finite. A surviving spouse inheriting well above it still pays, as the worked example above shows.
- Claiming the minor-child deduction for any child. It requires the descendant to have been under 18 at the date of death and to be the deceased's nearest heir. An adult child does not qualify, and neither does a grandchild whose own parent is still alive.
- Forgetting how expensive Class II is. Leaving assets to a sibling, a niece or nephew, or a partner you were never married to or registered with puts them in Class II, where a €100,000 share costs €18,600 rather than €8,000.
- Missing the cliff at €30,000. The floor is not a deduction that everyone gets. A share of exactly €30,000 pays nothing, and a share just above it pays the €100 base plus 7% of the small excess. The tax does not phase in smoothly from zero.
- Applying a deduction twice. No heir gets both the spousal and the minor-child deduction, and each deduction is per heir, not per estate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who actually pays Finnish inheritance tax -- the estate or the heirs?▸
The heirs. Each beneficiary is separately assessed on their own share, with their own tax class, their own deduction and their own trip up the bracket table.
How much can I inherit tax-free in Finland?▸
€30,000 per heir. A share at or below that floor attracts no perintövero. A surviving spouse effectively inherits far more tax-free, because the €90,000 spousal deduction comes off first and only what remains is compared against the floor.
What is the difference between Class I and Class II?▸
Class I covers the spouse, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents and a registered partner. Class II covers everyone else. On the same €100,000 share, Class I pays €8,000 and Class II pays €18,600 -- Class II rates start at 19% where Class I starts at 7%, and top out at 33% against Class I's 19%.
What is avio-oikeus and why does it halve the estate?▸
Married spouses generally hold a marital right to each other's property. On a death, the net marital property is notionally divided in half in the ositus before the estate is determined. The survivor's half was already theirs; only the deceased's half is inherited and taxed. A prenuptial agreement excluding the marital right removes this step, which is one reason such agreements have tax consequences well beyond divorce.
Does the surviving spouse pay inheritance tax?▸
Often yes, but at a reduced amount. The spouse is in Class I and deducts €90,000 from their share before the table is applied. Below roughly €120,000 of inherited share the resulting bill is modest; above that it climbs on the ordinary Class I schedule.
Can I reduce the bill by splitting the estate across more heirs?▸
Structurally, yes -- because the tax is per heir and each share climbs its own bracket table from the bottom, spreading an estate across more beneficiaries lowers the aggregate tax. Whether that is achievable depends entirely on the will, the lakiosa rules protecting direct descendants, and the family's circumstances, none of which this calculator addresses.
Is a gift received before death taxed as an inheritance?▸
Gifts made by the deceased within three years of death are drawn into the inheritance tax calculation, and gifts more generally attract lahjavero (gift tax) under a related but separate schedule. Neither is modeled here.
What if the estate mostly consists of a house nobody wants to sell?▸
This is a common and genuinely difficult case. Perintövero is assessed on value, not on cash received, so an illiquid estate can produce a bill the heirs cannot immediately fund. Installment arrangements are available in some circumstances. This calculator computes the liability only, not the payment options.
Do I owe Finnish inheritance tax if I live abroad?▸
Possibly. Finnish taxing rights depend on the residence of the deceased and the heir, on where the assets sit, and on any applicable tax treaty. This calculator assumes an ordinary Finnish domestic estate.
Why does the calculator show what the tax would be in the other class?▸
Because the class difference is the single largest driver of a Finnish inheritance tax bill, and seeing both figures side by side makes the size of that difference concrete. It is shown for comparison only -- your class is determined by your relationship to the deceased, not chosen.
Sources
- Vero (Verohallinto, vero.fi) -- official guidance on perintövero: the two-class structure (Class I comprising the spouse, direct descendants, direct ascendants and a registered partner; Class II comprising all other beneficiaries), the €30,000 floor below which no inheritance tax is charged, the €90,000 surviving-spouse deduction, and the €60,000 deduction for a descendant under 18 who is the deceased's nearest heir.
- Vero (vero.fi) -- guidance on ositus and avio-oikeus, confirming that net marital property is notionally divided in half before the deceased's taxable estate is determined, so that the surviving spouse's own half is excluded from the estate entirely.
- Bracket tables -- medium confidence. The per-band base amounts and marginal rates for Class I and Class II reproduced above were cross-corroborated by two independent secondary sources reporting identical figures, alongside vero.fi for the top-level structure, but a single official vero.fi bracket table was not fetched directly during this build. The tables are internally consistent (each band's base is exactly reproduced by walking the preceding band to its ceiling in both classes), but should be confirmed against vero.fi or your perintöverotuspäätös before relying on them for a material amount.
- Full citation detail and the confidence note are recorded in
engine/primitives/finland-tax.ts, section 6.