Yle tax: the Finnish public broadcasting tax
Everyone with enough income pays the Yle tax (Yle-vero), which funds the national broadcaster whether or not you watch it.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Calculation method
The Yle tax (Yle-vero) in 2026 is 2.5 % of your combined net earned and capital income above €15,150, and never more than €160 a year. You reach the cap at €21,550 of net income. For an employee, net income means gross pay minus at least the €750 work-expense deduction, so the tax starts at about €15,900 of annual salary and is maxed out from about €22,300. Someone earning €18,000 pays €52.50; at €20,000 it is €102.50; above that everybody pays the same flat €160. There is no bill in the post: the tax is part of the withholding rate on your tax card (verokortti), and the final amount is settled in your annual assessment. It replaced the old TV licence, so owning a television makes no difference. In Åland the Yle tax is not charged; residents there pay the province’s own media fee of €128 once net income exceeds €14,000.
Your Yle tax
Yle tax per year
€121.25
| Tax-free up to | €15,150 |
| Maximum reached at | €21,550 |
| Per month | €10.10 |
The formula
Take your net earned income, add your net capital income, subtract €15,150 and multiply by 2.5%. If the result exceeds €160, you pay €160. That is the whole calculation, set out in Vero’s 2026 withholding decision and summarised on Vero’s tax bases page. There are no brackets: each euro between the threshold and €21,550 costs 2.5 cents, and every euro above it costs nothing.
| Annual salary | Net earned income | Yle tax | All taxes | Yle share of taxes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €14,000 | €13,250 | €0.00 | €0.00 | – |
| €16,000 | €15,250 | €2.50 | €2.50 | 100 % |
| €18,000 | €17,250 | €52.50 | €210.90 | 25 % |
| €20,000 | €19,250 | €102.50 | €278.50 | 37 % |
| €22,000 | €21,250 | €152.50 | €346.10 | 44 % |
| €30,000 | €29,250 | €160.00 | €2,267.77 | 7 % |
On small salaries the Yle tax is a large slice of your total tax, sometimes nearly all of it, because the earned income credit cancels state tax and most of municipal tax. At €16,000 total tax is €2.50, of which €2.50 is Yle tax. By €30,000 the flat €160 has become a minor item.
How it is collected
Most people never see a separate Yle bill. Vero includes an estimate of your Yle tax in the withholding rate printed on your tax card, so your employer deducts it in instalments with the rest of your tax. Pension and benefit payers do the same. The exact amount is fixed in the annual assessment, where capital income and deductions are added. If you arrived in Finland part way through the year, only the income taxed in Finland counts, which often keeps newcomers under the cap in their first year.
Salary, pensions and benefits are treated slightly differently. Wages get the €750 work-expense deduction, so the threshold in gross terms is €15,900. Pensions and Kela benefits do not: €18,000 of pension gives €71.25 and the same amount of benefit €71.25, against €52.50 on wages. The basic deduction and the pension income deduction come later in the calculation and leave the Yle tax untouched.
What lowers it
Anything that reduces net earned income reduces the Yle tax too, as long as you are below the cap. The commuting deduction is the usual one: costs above the €900 own share come off before the Yle tax is worked out. Union and unemployment fund fees work the same way. Your pension, unemployment and daily allowance contributions, by contrast, are deducted only after net income has been fixed, so they do not change it. Below the cap, each extra €100 of deductions saves €2.50 of Yle tax.
Capital income
Dividends, rent and capital gains count as net capital income and are added to the base. Nothing is withheld on them through your salary, which surprises students and part-time workers with investments: on €14,000 of salary the Yle tax is €0.00, but €4,000 of net rental income on top lifts it to €52.50. Paying additional prepayment (lisäennakko) in MyTax (OmaVero) avoids residual tax later.
Åland: a media fee instead
Residents of Åland pay no Yle tax. The province charges its own media fee, a flat €128 once net income exceeds €14,000, with no gradual phase-in. In Mariehamn a €30,000 salary carries a €128 media fee, compared with €160 of Yle tax in Helsinki.
Next to the Yle tax, your payslip also carries health insurance contributions and, for members, church tax. Unlike those, the Yle tax is identical in every mainland municipality. The tax rate calculator shows it as a separate line.