Tax credit for replacing oil heating
Individuals can reduce their Finnish taxes for labour to remove oil heating from a home and install a replacement system that does not burn fossil fuels in the building’s own heating system.
Diese Finanzierungsmöglichkeit ist derzeit auf Englisch beschrieben.
The enhanced household tax credit covers labour for removing the oil boiler, burner, tank and pipes and installing a replacement heating system. The oil system must be removed entirely. A tank can remain if the environmental authority grants an exemption or removing it would require demolishing load-bearing structures. Converting the oil system to biofuel oil or biogas, or keeping oil heating alongside a heat pump, does not qualify for this enhanced credit.
For tax years 2025–2027, work bought from a company qualifies for a credit of 60% of the labour charge, including VAT. If you employ a worker directly, the credit is 30% of wages plus eligible employer contributions in full: health insurance, mandatory pension insurance, accident insurance, unemployment insurance and group life insurance. The employee’s own pension and unemployment contributions and payroll service fees do not qualify. Materials, equipment purchases and travel costs are excluded.
The combined credit is capped at €3,500 per person per year, after a €150 annual personal threshold. This is one shared ceiling for both payment routes and any other household credit you claim; up to €1,600 of the ceiling may cover other qualifying household work. The credit reduces your tax bill directly. An unused amount cannot be carried forward. Spouses can share the credit; transferring excess credit to a spouse means both pay the threshold. The spouse rules require both spouses to be resident taxpayers in Finland.
Here, “spouses” means people married before the end of the tax year or in a registered partnership. It also includes couples who lived continuously in the same household in a marriage-like relationship during the tax year and were previously married to each other or have or have had a child together. The spouse rules do not apply if you lived apart throughout the tax year to end your relationship or separated permanently during the year. Credit cannot be transferred between spouses after the tax assessment is final.
Eligibility
- You must pay for work at a home or holiday home used by you, your spouse, or qualifying older relatives: your, your spouse’s or your deceased spouse’s parents, adoptive or foster parents, their ancestors, or those relatives’ spouses. Your main home may be owned or rented. Work you do yourself or buy from someone in your household does not qualify.
- New construction and comparable extensions are excluded. A landlord cannot claim for an ordinary rental investment. Housing companies cannot claim; an individual shareholder can claim only for work within their own maintenance responsibility, ordered and paid directly to the worker.
- For contractor work in Finland, check that the supplier is in the prepayment register before making the contract. For contracts lasting more than a year, check at least annually. A non-profit providing renovation work must also be registered, and your payment must be taxable income for it. Ask the non-profit for a statement confirming that the activity is subject to income tax and attach that statement to your credit claim. This statement is required with the claim, unlike ordinary receipts that you send only on request.
- Contractor work can also qualify in another European Economic Area (EEA) country. You must show the contractor has not materially neglected tax payments, tax reporting or bookkeeping, for example through Form 14C or an equivalent certificate from the country’s tax authority. Wages paid to an employee for qualifying work at a home abroad can also qualify, subject to the other conditions.
- A state grant for abandoning oil heating excludes the household credit for the replacement as a whole, including radiator replacement in another tax year. Public repair grants can also exclude work on the same part of the building, even if the grant pays only for materials. If a grant decision is pending, wait for it before claiming the credit. Insurance-paid expenses are excluded, but your insurance excess can qualify if the other conditions are met. Private grants allow a credit only for the remaining eligible labour cost; a grant that is not allocated to specific invoice items is apportioned across them.
How to apply
- Status
- Laufende Antragstellung
- Beschränkungen dieser Antragsrunde
- Enhanced oil-heating credit applies through tax year 2027. Claims follow the annual tax-card or tax-return process; the payment/work-start rules determine the qualifying tax year.[^c1][^c34][^c35]
Check the contractor’s prepayment registration before signing and obtain an invoice that separates labour including VAT from other costs. Report the expenses to the Finnish Tax Administration in MyTax, either for your tax card during the year or on your tax return. For company work, provide the Business ID, contract or order date, payment dates, total invoice and labour share. For an employee, provide their personal ID, gross wages and eligible employer contributions; paper alternatives are Forms 14A and 14B.
The usual tax year is the payment year. If you pay in advance but work begins the following year, the credit belongs to the work-start year. With a financing company, use the financing-agreement year unless work starts later; with direct hire purchase, use each instalment’s payment year. Check and correct your pre-completed tax return even if you already claimed through your tax card. Keep receipts for six years after the payment year and send them only if requested. The tax-card effect requires that the work has been performed and paid for.