You are a business, not an employee
Wolt couriers in Finland work as independent contractors. You deliver under your own toiminimi and your own Business ID (Y-tunnus). Wolt is a customer that buys a delivery service from you, not an employer.
This has one consequence that catches almost everyone out: no tax is withheld from what you are paid. The money that lands in your account still has tax obligations attached to it, and it is your job to work out how much and pay it.
Three separate obligations apply:
- VAT (arvonlisävero) on the delivery services you sell
- Income tax on the profit your business makes
- YEL, the pension insurance for self-employed people, once your work reaches a certain level
They are filed at different times, to different schedules, and missing any one of them creates its own penalty.
How Wolt pays you: self-billing
Wolt uses a self-billing arrangement. You do not send Wolt an invoice. Wolt generates the invoice on your behalf, pays you twice a month, and emails you a proof of payment after each pay period.
The important detail is that the amount paid to you includes VAT. Delivery and courier services in Finland are taxed at the standard rate of 25.5%. That VAT portion is not your money. You are holding it on behalf of Vero, and you must declare it on a VAT return and pay it over.
This is the single most common reason couriers end up with a tax bill they cannot pay. The payout looks like income, gets spent like income, and then a VAT return falls due on money that has already gone.
Working out the VAT you owe
The VAT you pay is not simply 25.5% of everything you received. It is output VAT minus input VAT.
Output VAT is the VAT included in what Wolt paid you. Input VAT is the VAT you paid on genuine business purchases, which you can deduct.
A worked example for one month:
- Wolt pays you €2,510 in total. That figure includes VAT.
- Your turnover excluding VAT is €2,510 ÷ 1.255 = €2,000.
- Output VAT is therefore €510.
- You spent €251 (including VAT) on deductible business costs: phone, equipment, repairs.
- That is €200 excluding VAT, so your input VAT is €51.
- VAT payable to Vero is €510 − €51 = €459.
Your taxable business profit for income tax is a different number again: €2,000 turnover minus €200 expenses = €1,800, before YEL contributions and any other deductions.
Couriers with significant deductible costs end up paying meaningfully less than the headline 25.5%. Couriers who keep no receipts pay the full amount.
How often you file VAT
Wolt requires partners operating through their own company to be VAT-registered from day one. It is a condition of the partnership, so the small-business threshold that exempts very low-turnover businesses does not usually help you here.
How often you file depends on annual turnover:
- Under €30,000: once a year, due by the last day of February for the previous year
- €30,000 to €100,000: quarterly
- Over €100,000: monthly
Most gig-worker clients fall in the first bracket and file annually. That sounds easier, and it is, but it also means a full year of VAT falls due in a single payment at the end of February. Setting money aside monthly is not optional.
A return must be filed for every period even if you earned nothing. A nil return is still a return, and not filing one triggers the late-filing penalty just the same.
Income tax and prepayments
Your business profit is taxed as your income. For a toiminimi this is reported on Form 5 (lomake 5), the business tax return, which flows into your personal tax assessment.
Rather than waiting for a bill at the end of the year, you apply for prepayment tax (ennakkovero) based on an estimate of your annual profit, and pay it in instalments through the year. If your estimate turns out too low you pay the difference later, potentially with interest. If it is too high you get a refund.
Estimating this well at the start matters. If you register a low estimate and then work full time, the shortfall arrives as one large bill.
YEL pension insurance
YEL is mandatory self-employed pension insurance. It applies if the estimated value of your work input exceeds €9,208 per year (2025 threshold, index-adjusted annually), you are between 18 and 67, and the activity continues for more than four months.
Two points that are widely misunderstood:
- YEL is based on the value of your work input, not simply your platform turnover.
- You must take it out within six months of starting business activity.
As a new entrepreneur you get a 22% discount on contributions for the first four years. Your YEL income level also determines your Kela sickness allowance and parental leave, so setting it too low to save money reduces your safety net as well as your pension.
What to keep, and for how long
Keep every proof of payment from Wolt and every receipt for a business expense. Photograph receipts the day you get them; thermal paper fades to blank within months.
Receipt photos need to be sharp and the amounts fully readable. A blurry or heavily compressed image is not a valid accounting record and Vero can disallow the deduction.
If you claim vehicle costs, you need a mileage log recording the date, start and end point, purpose, and kilometres for each business trip.
Accounting records must be retained for six years in case of an audit.