Finland enters 2026 with significant payroll regulation changes that directly impact HR and payroll management: removal of company bike tax exemptions, restructured electric vehicle benefits, and implementation of the EU pay transparency directive. For companies with Nordic subsidiaries, these changes require concrete updates to payroll ERP systems. Details were published by Procountor on their blog on March 3, 2026.
Company Bikes: End of Tax Exemption
The company bike benefit (polkupyöräetu), previously tax-exempt, becomes taxable in 2026. A transition period exists: contracts signed before April 24, 2025 retain their exemption status until contract end, capped at 5 years and €1,200/year (Procountor source). If the employee changes or the contract transfers, the exemption is lost.
ERP Impact: Payroll systems must now distinguish between two tax regimes for the same type of benefit-in-kind—grandfathered contracts (exempt) and new contracts (taxable). Classification errors generate tax corrections.
Electric Vehicles: Extended Benefits, Hybrids Excluded
Finland extends the €170/month tax benefit for 100% electric vehicles until end of 2029 (Procountor source). However, the €85/month benefit for low-emission vehicles ended on December 31, 2025.
New for 2026: a charging benefit (latausetu) is introduced. Monthly amount: €30 for electric vehicles, €20 for plug-in hybrids. Condition: the employer must cover electricity costs. The benefit is not prorated and must be declared as supplementary benefit-in-kind in the income register (Procountor source).
ERP Impact: Three new benefit codes to configure, with different start and end dates. The payroll module must also handle automatic declaration to the Finnish income register (tulorekisteri).
EU Pay Transparency Directive: Companies with 100+ Employees Affected
The Finnish implementation of EU Directive 2023/970 on pay transparency requires companies with 100+ employees to report gender pay gaps, broken down by job category. Reporting goes through the income register, with part of the data pre-filled from existing payroll declarations (Procountor source).
ERP Impact: The HR/payroll module must extract and categorize compensation data by gender and job category—reporting that most mid-market ERP systems don’t offer natively. International companies with Finnish subsidiaries need to verify their group ERP (SAP, Oracle, Workday) supports this localized reporting, or rely on local vendors like Procountor.
What to Watch
The pay transparency directive will roll out progressively across all EU member states by June 2026. Multi-country companies should anticipate similar reporting requirements in France, Germany, and the rest of the EU. Nordic vendors like Procountor, Visma, or Fortnox have the advantage of being first-to-market on these topics—their regulatory updates often arrive before those of international ERP systems.
For IT leaders managing Nordic subsidiaries: verify now that your payroll ERP supports the Finnish income register (tulorekisteri) and the new 2026 benefit-in-kind codes.
