Vero proposes new tax-card rates to 22,000 people in September

Verohallinto has sent new tax-card proposals to just over 22,000 people this week.Vero The proposals go to people whose withholding rate looks too high or too low in the light of Verohallinto's data. The aim is to prompt customers to keep their rate up to date so they avoid residual tax, known as mätkyt, next year.

Verohallinto compares the data on the customer's current tax card with realised income and deductions for the current year. It proposes a change when income or deductions have changed substantially, or when the card's income limit looks too small. The proposal appears in OmaVero, where the customer can accept it. If the customer does not accept it, the old income limit and rate stay in force.Vero

The income limit is worth following through the year. In the completed 2024 taxation, just over 750,000 people had residual tax to pay, and senior inspector Päivi Ylitalo reminds customers to watch that the limit on the card is enough. This year higher earners in particular should check it.

The calculation of tax cards contained an error that made the additional percentage on income above the limit too high for people earning 88,200–150,000 euros a year.Vero The calculation has been corrected, and the additional percentage is right on change cards made after 25 JuneVero.Vero If the income limit of such a customer looks like being exceeded and no change card has yet been made, it is worth making one, so that income above the limit is taxed at the correct rate for the rest of the year.

If the limit is exceeded and the additional percentage stays too high, the customer gets the overpaid tax back as a refund next year.Vero Verohallinto estimates that the limit will be exceeded and the additional percentage will stay too high for about 10,000 customers unless they make a change card.Vero

Most proposals go to wage earners whose limit looks like being exceeded. They also go to customers retiring or with rental income, and to people who have had household-deduction qualifying work done. Verohallinto can receive information about such work directly from the companies that did it; if the customer has not entered the deduction on the card, Verohallinto proposes that the rate could be lowered.

Proposals have been sent for several years and their number keeps growing. Customers mostly welcome them: Verohallinto watches the income limit on their behalf, sparing them high additional percentages in November and December and residual tax, and the customer need not compute the underlying income because Verohallinto can use Incomes Register data. Still, Verohallinto can only estimate income when it is regular, so with varied employment relationships even the customer may find it hard to judge whether the limit is enough.

The card mechanics sit in the Ennakkoperintälaki (1118/1996) and Verohallinto's Verokortti ja ennakkovero guidance: the card carries a rate up to the income limit and a higher additional percentage above it.