How much of your bonus do you keep?

Splitting your bonus across two years – how the tax saving works

Finland's state income tax is progressive: the more you earn in a single calendar year, the higher the share taken by taxes. If a large bonus is paid entirely in December, it is added to your other income for the year and may push a significant portion of your earnings into a higher tax bracket.

Splitting pays off when the bonus “spills” across a bracket boundary. For example, with a €70,000 annual salary and a €20,000 bonus, part of the bonus lands at a marginal rate several percentage points above your average rate on regular pay. By splitting the bonus evenly across December and January you halve its impact: neither payment pushes your income as high.

When does splitting not help? If your annual salary is already high enough (above ~€100,000) that you are fully in the top bracket, the bonus cannot raise your marginal rate further — every euro of bonus is taxed at the same high rate regardless of which year it is paid in.

How to request the split.Ask your employer's payroll team to pay part of the bonus in the December payrun and the remainder in January. Most employers can accommodate this if arranged before the payroll deadline. This calculator gives you the exact euro figures to back up your request.