Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship means doing work independently without an employment relationship: entrepreneurs acquire their own work, agree on assignments, and are responsible for their own insurance coverage and pensions. However, if the work meets the characteristics of an employment relationship, you are legally an employee.
Who is an entrepreneur?
Signs of entrepreneurship include the following:
- you acquire your tools and a place of work yourself
- you define your working hours
- you will are paid for your work based on results or invoicing
- you pay for your pension and insurance coverage.
As an entrepreneur, you do not have an employment relationship with the person or company you perform work for. You do not enter into an employment contract with the company. In this case, instead of an employment contract, the contract may be called a ‘commission agreement’ (in Finnish, ‘toimeksiantosopimus’).
If you sell your labour as an independent entrepreneur, the business or other customer ordering work from you does not manage or supervise your work.
As an entrepreneur, you may have a trade name, meaning that you operate as a sole trader. You may also be a freelancer or operate through a company/enterprise. If you’re an entrepreneur, you must pay your pension contributions for self-employment (abbreviated as YEL) and other insurance premiums.
If your work has all the characteristics of an employment relationship, you’re an employee, even if you have agreed on something else. Read more in Platform work > Are you an employee or an entrepreneur?
Freelancers
If you’re a freelancer, you can simultaneously work for one or more companies or other customers who provide you with work. As a freelancer, you can either be an entrepreneur or an employee, or you can receive what is known as ‘trade income’.
When you work as a freelancer, you enter into a commission agreement with a client. The agreement must state whether it concerns a fixed-term employment relationship or commissioned work as an entrepreneur.
Trade income
Trade income is not a wage, but compensation. This means that the provider of the work pays the tax specified on your tax card on your trade income, as with a normal salary, but no employment pension insurance or other social insurance contributions are payable on it.
When the value of your monthly work exceeds a certain amount, you need to take out pension insurance for the self-employed, or YEL insurance. For example, in 2026, the lower limit for YEL insurance is EUR 9,423.09, or an average of EUR 785 per month.
If you receive trade income for your work, you are not subject to labour laws. As the recipient of trade income, you have the same legal status as an entrepreneur.