The Supreme Administrative Court of Finland (Korkein hallinto-oikeus-KHO) on Wednesday rejected an appeal filed by the delivery company Wolt regarding taxation of the food couriers, said the company in a press release.
The Court upheld the ruling of the Central Tax Board, confirming that couriers’ income must be considered wages earned in an employment relationship, and that Wolt must pay withholding tax on that income.
Earlier in May last year, the KHO ruled in a precedent that Wolt couriers are employees, not entrepreneurs.
Wolt has not complied with the Court’s ruling and has continued operating mainly under the “entrepreneur model,” said Service Union United (Palvelualojen ammattiliitto) PAM in a press release after the verdict.
“It is completely unacceptable that a company operating in Finland does not comply with final court rulings. Wolt must now simply follow the law and act in accordance with the rulings. This means employee status for all couriers working for the company,” said PAM President Annika Rönni-Sällinen in the press release.
In the reasoning for Wednesday´s decision, the Court states that attention must be paid to the possible lack of independence of the contracting party performing the work and to the possible artificial nature of the arrangement.
The reasoning also notes that the changes Wolt has made to its substitute practices are minor when assessing the arrangement as a whole.
Wolt has justified its refusal to comply with the Court’s ruling by referring to “changes” it has made to its entrepreneur model.
The Supreme Administrative Court’s decision confirmed that the actual conditions of the work are what matter, not technical changes made to contract terms.
“The time for excuses is over. We demand that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration immediately take measures to ensure that couriers’ employee status and rights are respected. So far, supervision has been practically non-existent,” said Rönni-Sällinen.
PAM also calls for effective legislative reforms to safeguard the position of platform workers and prevent the spread of false self-employment.
In September 2025, Wolt decided to appeal against the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court, which determined the status of its couriers as employees.
- Court
- Rejects
- Wolt
- Appeal
- Couriers taxation
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
