Finland Kotitalousvähennys Calculator (Household Expense Tax Credit, 2026)

Kotitalousvähennys is Finland's household expense tax credit -- a direct reduction in your tax bill (not just taxable income) for money spent on home renovation and maintenance work, domestic help, or care/nursing services, whether you buy the work from a registered company or directly employ someone yourself. It's one of the most widely used personal tax credits in Finland, and it's genuinely worth understanding closely: the credit rate, cap, and deductible differ significantly depending on how you arrange the work.

For 2026, current law sets the credit at 35% of the labor-cost portion of an invoice from a registered company (työkorvaus), or 13% of wages if you employ someone directly yourself (palkka) -- plus, in the direct-employment case, your mandatory employer side costs (sivukulut: health insurance, pension, accident, and unemployment insurance contributions) are separately fully deductible on top of that 13%. Either way, there's a €1,600 per person, per year cap, and a €150 per year self-paid deductible (omavastuu) below which no credit is given at all. A couple who each separately claim the credit for shared household expenses can receive up to €3,200 combined. All figures are in euros (€), Finland's currency.

A note on a pending -- but not yet enacted -- proposal: as of this calculator's verification date, Finland's government had submitted a bill to Parliament proposing to raise the rate to 40% and the cap to €2,100, intended to apply retroactively for tax year 2026 if passed. That bill had not yet been enacted at the time of writing -- its own official announcement stated implementation "depends on Parliament's schedule." This calculator uses the current, confirmed 35%/€1,600 figures, not the pending proposal, so as not to overstate a benefit that may not (yet) exist. Check vero.fi for the latest status if you're filing near year-end.

Using the calculator's default inputs:

• Work Type: Bought From a Company (Työkorvaus)
• Labor Cost: €3,000.00
• Oil Heating Replacement: No

Step by step:

1. Rate: Company-purchased work → 35%.
2. Raw deduction: €3,000.00 × 35% = €1,050.00.
3. After omavastuu: €1,050.00 − €150.00 = €900.00.
4. Cap check: €900.00 is below the €1,600.00 standard cap, so no capping applies.
5. Kotitalousvähennys credit: €900.00.

For comparison, a larger €6,000.00 job at the same 35% rate would produce a raw deduction of €2,100.00, or €1,950.00 after the omavastuu -- which exceeds the €1,600.00 cap, so the credit is capped at €1,600.00 exactly, with €350.00 of otherwise-eligible expense going unused. A household replacing oil heating with a €5,000.00 company-purchased installation, however, gets the elevated 60% rate: €5,000.00 × 60% = €3,000.00, minus €150.00 omavastuu = €2,850.00, well within the higher €3,500.00 oil-heating cap.

• The pending 40%/€2,100 proposal. As detailed above, a bill to raise the standard rate and cap was before Parliament as of this calculator's verification, intended to apply retroactively to 2026 if passed -- but it was not yet law. This calculator will need updating once/if that bill is enacted; check vero.fi for the current status.
• Materials and non-labor costs. Only the labor portion of an invoice from a company is eligible -- VAT-inclusive materials, equipment, and travel costs billed separately are not eligible for the credit, and this calculator assumes the labor-cost input you provide already excludes materials.
• Doubling the cap for couples. The credit is personal -- each spouse in a household can separately claim up to their own €1,600 cap (€3,200 combined) against shared expenses. This calculator computes the credit for one applicant at a time; if you and a partner are both claiming, run the calculator once per person's share of the eligible cost.
• The +105 €/child child bonus to a different credit. This calculator's kotitalousvähennys is unrelated to the separate työtulövähennys child bonus modeled in our net salary calculator -- the two are distinct credits.
• Combining ordinary work and oil-heating-replacement work in the same year. The €150 omavastuu applies once per person per year in total, not once per work category; this calculator models each work type in isolation and does not combine a mixed claim across both categories in a single computation.
• Income tax liability limits. Like most Finnish tax credits, kotitalousvähennys can only reduce your tax bill down to zero -- it is not refundable beyond your actual tax liability for the year. This calculator computes the theoretical credit amount, not whether your specific tax bill is large enough to absorb it.

• Forgetting the €150 omavastuu applies before the cap, not after. A common mental-math error is applying the cap first and the deductible second; the correct order is: compute the raw percentage-based deduction, subtract the €150 deductible once, and only then compare the result to the cap.
• Assuming materials are eligible. Only labor is eligible when buying from a company -- a renovation invoice that bundles materials and labor together needs to be itemized to isolate the labor-only portion before applying the 35% rate.
• Using the direct-employment rate for company-purchased work, or vice versa. The rate difference is dramatic (35% vs. 13%) -- always match the rate to how the work was actually arranged, not to whichever produces a better result.
• Not claiming your spouse's separate €1,600 cap. Because the credit is personal, a couple splitting a large renovation bill and each claiming their own share can together access up to €3,200 -- many taxpayers unknowingly leave this on the table by only claiming under one person's name.
• Assuming the pending 40%/€2,100 proposal is already in effect. As of this calculator's verification, it was still a bill before Parliament, not enacted law -- don't budget around it until it's confirmed passed.

• Vero.fi -- official 2026 press release, "Kotitalousvähennykseen ehdotetaan korotusta, matkakulujen omavastuu pienenee," confirming current law (35%/13%, €1,600 cap, €150 omavastuu) and explicitly describing the 40%/€2,100 increase as a pending, not-yet-enacted government bill.
• Veronmaksajain Keskusliitto ry (Finnish Taxpayers' Association) -- corroborating summary of current kotitalousvähennys rates, the personal €1,600/€3,200-per-couple cap structure, and the €150 omavastuu.
• Veronmaksajain Keskusliitto ry and Finnish energy-renovation industry sources -- corroborating the 2022–2027 oil-heating-replacement enhanced rate (60%/30%) and €3,500 cap.