Making training vouchers a tax-exempt employee benefit

Continuously developing your skills has become vital to succeed in working life. A EUR 1,500 training voucher as a tax-exempt employee benefit, much like lunch, culture and exercise benefits, would make it easier to develop your skills and reduce bureaucracy. The benefit would be useful to both employers and employees and support Finland’s goals of raising the education level.

Continuously developing your skills has become essential in working life. Careers have also become more diverse, which means that many people will move on to another industry later in life. However, the options for retraining are limited.

Some of the starting places in higher education institutions are filled by those completing a second degree when there are no other means of developing your skills. This leaves fewer starting places for those dreaming of their first higher education degree. There needs to be more options for developing your skills than completing a degree.

Currently, the employer can offer tax-free training if the training takes place at the employer’s initiative. We want to make self-motivated training and the development of skills easier for employees, which will maintain motivation, provide support for changes in working life, and increase employment opportunities. For the employer, the benefit offers the opportunity to keep, motivate and maintain the employee’s work ability and build a positive employer image.

Let’s make self-motivated training a tax-free employee benefit, just like lunch, cultural and exercise benefits. We propose a maximum of EUR 1,500 per year for tax-free training, which would provide a real opportunity for training. The only significant change to the current situation would be that the employer’s initiative would not be needed for training, which would lower the threshold for training and significantly expand the training offering. The employee would be free to decide what kind of training would best develop their skills.