When am I able to get expenses reimbursed?

When am I able to get expenses reimbursed?

Please read the conditions for reimbursement carefully, as we do not want you to pay in vain. A service fee will be charged for handling the costs, even if not all your costs are accepted for reimbursement. 

We offer an additional paid service that allows you to deduct material costs, supplies and travel costs directly related to the invoiced work already at the time of payment. Your expenses will be reimbursed to you on the basis of a purchase receipt or travel invoice and you will gain financial benefit when you pay less taxes and side costs on your salary.

Expense reimbursement is paid in accordance with the Tax Administration’s instructions

In practice, the VAT-free total of the invoice paid by your client is divided to salary for the work and expenses. You do not pay taxes or side costs for the share of expenses. We will process and verify your reimbursable expenses and ensure that the reimbursement is paid to you in accordance with the instructions of the Tax Administration.

You will be reimbursed immediately

Supply and material costs must be invoiced from the customer to be reimbursed in connection with the salary payment. In addition, a breakdown of expenses in the online service must be filled in and receipts for purchases must be added. Please note that even though the share of expenses is paid to you without withholding, it is still taxable income for you. It means that you still have to apply for deductions for the expenses in your own taxes, otherwise the result may be back taxes.

In what situations can you receive expense reimbursements during salary payment?

Your expenses can be reimbursed under the following conditions:

  • Expenses are deductible according to the Tax Administration’s instructions, i.e. they are related to the work you invoice through us, and they do not involve private use or long-term use.
  • Expenses and receipts meet Tax Administration’s requirements.
  • You have provided us with the necessary expenses and receipts as well as a breakdown of expenses prior to your salary payment.
  • After reimbursement, there must always be a reasonable salary for the work. This may in some cases limit the consideration of both reimbursable expenses and tax-free travel expenses. Otherwise, there is no personal or job-specific limit on expenses.

Requirements for documents and receipts:

  • The document or receipt must not be more than 2 months older than salary payment date, due to accounting requirements.
  • According to the Tax Administration’s instructions, the receipt or document may not contain purchases other than those caused by work.
  • You pay the costs yourself. For example, your spouse cannot be a payer because then the expense would be included in his or her deductions.
  • If the buyer’s name appears on the document or receipt, it should be your own name or the marketing name you use as an Eezy light entrepreneur. It cannot be, for example, the name or business ID of your former business.
  • The same receipt or document cannot be used more than once.
  • The receipt or document is always processed as a whole, attached to one invoice.
  • Please keep the original receipts and documents until your salary has been paid and those expenses have been reimbursed to you.

Not all purchases can be accepted as expenses

We cannot accept as expenses purchases that may involve private use or have longer-term use. Examples of such expenses are:

  • clothing
  • telephone
  • computer
  • accommodation and rental costs
  • tools for long-term use

You will be able to deduct these acquisitions and expenses in your own personal taxation if the Tax Administration deems them necessary in the exercise of your profession. Also, trainings, courses and professional literature are not accepted as expenses through us.

Tax Administration’s guide: Income acquisition costs from earned income (in Finnish)

What expenses do we reimburse?

  • Supplies and material expense
  • Travel expenses
  • A rental business premise, if it is invoiced on a daily or hourly basis and is directly related to the assignment you invoice

Read examples of reimbursable expenses.

Supplies and material expenses

We may reimburse you for supplies and materials in accordance with the Tax Administration’s instructions when supply and material expenses are directly related to the work invoiced. Supply and material costs must be invoiced from the customer to be reimbursed in connection with the salary payment. In addition, a breakdown of expenses in the online service must be filled in and receipts for purchases must be added. When you add these to the breakdown they will be paid without holding taxes. In this case the share of expenses is taxable income for a light entrepreneur and the deductions have to be claimed on your tax return. Otherwise, taxes on the share of expenses will be claimed afterwards, and may result in back taxes. 

Travel expenses

We may reimburse you for travel expenses as instructed by the Tax Administration, as tax-exempt expense reimbursements. The Tax Administration has its own guidelines for light entrepreneur services for the payment of travel expenses. See Tax Administration’s guidelines (only in Finnish).

Tax-exempt travel reimbursements

According to the Tax Administration’s instructions, the condition for paying tax-exempt travel reimbursements to a light entrepreneur is that the travel expenses have been invoiced from their client, separated from the work share. You can apply for tax-exempt travel reimbursements up to the amount you have invoiced from your client.

Requirements for reimbursing tax-exempt travel expenses:

  • In addition to travel expenses, you also invoice work and travel expenses are related to that work.
  • You have specified the share of work and the share of travel expenses on separate rows on your sales invoice, example: Cleaning 2 h, total 50 € and Travel expenses, total 20 €.
  • The time and kilometer limits set by the Tax Administration for tax-exempt travel expenses are exceeded.
  • This is an unusual location for work, i.e. a place where you work temporarily.

Travel expense reimbursements in a special field

Reimbursement of travel expenses in special fields differs from ordinary business trips in terms of daily allowances. When working in a special field, you are entitled to a daily allowance only if your business trip lasts overnight or you do mobile work, in which case general reimbursements for travel expenses apply to you.

Special fields refer to the construction, civil engineering, or forestry field, which are characterized by the frequent need to change the work location due to the short duration of the work typical of the field.

However, it is not always entirely clear whether you work in a special field or whether your work is mobile work. The difference between the two is interpreted as a person doing mobile work changes their place of work very often, e.g. several times a day – that is, more often than a person working in a special field. General tax guidelines apply to the travel expenses of a mobile worker. https://www.vero.fi/en/individuals/tax-cards-and-tax-returns/income-and-deductions/travel_expenses/travelling_within_special_sectors_of_wo/

Tax Administration’s Guidelines: Travelling within special sectors of work

Reimbursement of rental expenses for own premises 

Through Eezy, a rental business premise can be deducted as an expense reimbursement if it is invoiced on a daily or hourly basis and is directly related to the assignment you invoice, i.e. the time of the rental is the same as the time of the work.

Deducting monthly rent as an expense through Eezy is only possible when it can be verified that the rent for the premises is directly related to the work you do and that the rental expense does not have personal use. In this case, we need a breakdown of the rent, how the space has been used. For example, a hairdresser’s rental chair can be verified to be directly related to the execution of the work. On the other hand, rent for storage space, for example, is not considered an expense directly related to the performance of the work, so you cannot deduct it through Eezy (you may be able to deduct such expenses in your personal taxation).