All amounts below come from the Finnish Tax Administration’s decision on tax-exempt allowances for business travel in 2026 (VH/6575/00.01.00/2025), which applies to travel from 1 January 2026.
Finland Per Diem Rules: Questions and Answers
Q: What are the tax-free daily allowances for 2026?
- Partial per diem: €25 (trips of more than 6 hours)
- Full per diem: €54 (trips of more than 10 hours)
- Meal money, paid instead of a per diem when the employee has to eat away from their normal eating place: €13.50, or €27 for two meals
- Kilometre allowance for a passenger car: 55 cents per km
- Per diems for trips abroad: see the country amounts below
Q: When is the per diem tax free?
A per diem is only payable for a day when the temporary place of work is more than 15 km from the employee’s main workplace or home, depending on where the trip starts, and more than 5 km from both.
Within Finland, the partial per diem applies to trips of more than 6 hours and the full per diem to trips of more than 10 hours. On a trip lasting more than one day, if travel time exceeds the last full day of travel by at least 2 hours, a further €25 is tax free, and by more than 6 hours, a further €54.
If the employee receives free meals, or meals included with the travel ticket, the maximum per diem is half the normal amount. Free meals means two free meals for the full per diem and one free meal for the partial per diem.
The per diem covers the extra cost of meals and other living expenses on the trip. Accommodation and travel tickets are not part of it and can be reimbursed separately against receipts.
Q: What are the per diems for countries around Finland in 2026?
- Sweden: €70
- Norway: €72
- Denmark: €82
- Estonia: €82
- Latvia: €76
- Lithuania: €75
- Poland: €84
- Germany: €78
- United Kingdom: €84
- Russia: €87
The per diem covers one day of travel, meaning 24 hours from the start of a business trip or 24 hours from the end of the previous day of travel. The amount is set by the country or region where the day of foreign travel ends. If the day ends on a ship or airplane, the amount is based on the country the ship or airplane last departed from or, when leaving Finland, the country where it will first arrive.
A business trip abroad must last at least 10 hours for the country amount to apply. If the whole trip is shorter than 10 hours, the domestic rules and amounts apply.
On returning to Finland, the employee is entitled to half of the foreign per diem for the last completed day of travel if the trip exceeds the last full day of travel abroad by more than two hours. If it exceeds it by more than ten hours, the employee is entitled to the full foreign per diem for that day.
If the employee receives free meals, or meals included in the price of a ticket or a hotel room, the foreign per diem is reduced by 50 percent. For foreign travel, two free meals count as free meals.
Q: What does the employer need for the per diem to stay tax free?
Allowances are tax free only if the trip meets the conditions in the Tax Administration’s decision and the employee draws up an expense report for the company’s bookkeeping records. Costs such as hotels and tickets are reimbursed against receipts. Amounts that go beyond the decision, or that are not documented, are treated as taxable income.
