Find out about working as an entrepreneur in Finland

What does it mean to be an entrepreneur?

• An entrepreneur refers to a person who performs gainful employment without being in an employment relationship.
• An entrepreneur is paid compensation for the work performed. The amount has been negotiated in advance with the client.
• The entrepreneur is not entitled to paid annual leave or sick leave. As an entrepreneur you must yourself take care of your social security and your statutory pension contributions and insurance premiums. You can decide yourself how, where and when to work.

Being an entrepreneur also impacts your

• taxation
• unemployment security
• pension security
• occupational accidents and diseases security.

In Finland, the laws applying to entrepreneurs differ from those applying to employees. An employee is entitled to salary, a compensation for overtime and paid annual leave. The employer insures the employee and takes care of the employee’s social security and statutory pension contributions. The employee's working hours are determined in the employment contract.

• Earned income tax is paid from an employee’s salary. Its amount increases progressively as the salary rises.
• An entrepreneur with an individually-owned business pays income tax on their company income. The company income will be taxed partly on capital gains tax and partly on earnings. Capital income and earned income are taxed in a different way. Read the tax authority’s instructions for entrepreneurs.Opens in a new window.
• The taxes of a so-called light entrepreneur are usually paid by the invoicing service that the light entrepreneur uses. However, in certain cases, light entrepreneurs must also pay taxes themselves. Read the Tax Administration’s instructions for light entrepreneurs.Opens in a new window.

• Full-time entrepreneurs are not entitled to unemployment security in Finland. Even if you do not have any income from your private entrepreneurship, you cannot receive unemployment benefit until when you have closed down your company.
• Part-time entrepreneurs may be entitled to unemployment security.

In practice, your entrepreneurship is full-time if the amount of work required for your business activities is such that you cannot do another full-time job as an employee at the same time. Read about entrepreneurship and unemployment security on the website of the Job Market FinlandOpens in a new window..Opens in a new window.

• The employer pays the employee’s mandatory pension contributions. 
• When certain conditions are met, as an entrepreneur you must yourself take and pay the self-employed person's pension insurance.

You can take out your pension insurance from your chosen employment pension institution. Read about entrepreneurs’ pension security on the Työeläke website.Opens in a new window.

As an entrepreneur you decide yourself whether to take out occupational accidents and diseases insurance. If you have a pension insurance in accordance with the Self-employed Persons' Pensions Act, you can also take out occupational accidents and diseases insurance, to which you can also link leisure-time insurance.

Read more on the website of Finnish Workers’ Compensation Center.Opens in a new window.