Becoming a taxi entrepreneur in Finland: licence, exam and company

To run a taxi business, three things must be in place: the company has a taxi transport licence, the driver has a taxi driving licence, and the car is registered for licensed use. A taxi driving licence alone does not allow you to work as a taxi entrepreneur.

Taxi entrepreneurs often drive their own taxi. In that case you need a taxi transport licence for your company and a taxi driving licence for yourself. The taxi driving licence is explained on the page Become a taxi driver, and the difference between the two licences on the page Taxi licence in Finland.

All the facts come from Traficom, the Finnish Tax Administration, the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) and Suomi.fi.

The steps in short

1. Complete 21 hours of training for taxi transport entrepreneurs, then take Traficom’s entrepreneur examination.
2. Set up a company and get a Business ID.
3. Apply for a taxi transport licence in Traficom’s My e-Services.
4. Register the car for licensed use and add it to the transport licence.
5. If you drive yourself, get a taxi driving licence.

When you apply for the licence, you must have a Business ID and a passed entrepreneur examination. Traficom does not check the conditions in advance. It checks them only when it processes your application.

When you need a taxi transport licence

The taxi transport licence (taksiliikennelupa) is the licence that allows a company to operate taxi services. Some people call it a taxi operating licence. You need it for the commercial transport of passengers in a vehicle with a maximum of 1+8 seats. The licence belongs to the company, so the number of cars the company uses is not limited.

The licence is valid for 10 years. It allows taxi operations everywhere in mainland Finland. The licence, or a copy of it, must be in the car.

If your company already has a valid goods or passenger transport licence, it can operate taxi services under that licence after it notifies Traficom.

Conditions for the taxi transport licence

Traficom grants the licence when these conditions are met:

• Legal capacity. The applicant is of age and legally competent. The same applies to the company’s person responsible for transport.
• Good repute. Traficom takes into account prison sentences from the last five years and fines from the last two years. From 1 September 2026, it also takes into account offences against life and health, sexual offences, and fraud and payment instrument offences. If the applicant is a company, the requirement also applies to people such as the managing director and the chair of the board.
• Ability to meet financial obligations. The applicant is not bankrupt and not under a business ban. The applicant must not have neglected taxes or similar payments, or debts in enforcement that are more than minor in view of the applicant’s ability to pay.
• Establishment in Finland. The applicant’s permanent residence, or the company’s registered office in the Trade Register, is in Finland. The applicant also has an effective and stable place of business in Finland.
• Business ID. The applicant has a Business ID (Y-tunnus).
• Professional competence. The applicant, or the company’s person responsible for transport, has passed the training for taxi transport entrepreneurs and the entrepreneur examination.

If a company applies, it must have a person responsible for transport (liikenteestä vastaava henkilö). This person must actually and continuously manage the company’s transport operations and represent the company. An agreement alone is not enough.

Entrepreneur training and examination

You show professional competence in two parts: first the training, then an examination organised by Traficom.

The training. The training for taxi transport entrepreneurs (taksiliikenteen yrittäjäkoulutus) lasts at least 21 hours. Only training organisations approved by Traficom may provide it. It covers the commercial and financial management of a taxi company, and the law on vehicles, transport, taxation, bookkeeping, employment, wages, social security, pensions and insurance.

The examination. Since 1 September 2026, Traficom organises the entrepreneur examination (yrittäjäkoe). It works like this:

1. You complete the training.
2. The training organisation reports your completed training to Traficom. This gives you access to the examination.
3. You take the examination at a service point of Traficom’s service provider.
4. Your passed examination is entered in Traficom’s Transport Register.

Only training completed after 1 September 2026 gives access to the examination. The page Taxi law 2026 explains this change.

Traficom’s regulation says:

• The examination is a digital theory test.
• You must take it in Finnish or Swedish. You may not use an interpreter or a dictionary.
• You have at most 120 minutes.
• You may use the calculator and the note-taking app on the tablet that the service provider gives you. You may not take a phone or other communication devices into the examination room.
• You must prove your identity when you check in for the examination.
• The examination has multiple-choice tasks and case tasks. Each question has several answer options, and one of them is correct.
• If you fail, you can retake the examination on the next working day at the earliest.
• If you have dyslexia or another health reason, you can take the examination orally with extra time, at most 240 minutes. You need a written statement for this.

The examination is marked by topic. If you have too few correct answers in any one topic, you fail the whole examination.

Who does not need the training and examination. You do not need them if you held a valid taxi licence, or were the person responsible for transport under one, when the Taxi Transport Act entered into force on 1 August 2007. General business training or a higher education degree does not replace the training and examination. To check your qualifications in the Transport Register, contact Traficom at ammattiliikenne@traficom.fi.

Setting up the company

The taxi transport licence is granted either to a person who runs a business as a sole trader (toiminimi, officially yksityinen elinkeinonharjoittaja), or to a legal person, such as a limited company (osakeyhtiö) or a limited partnership (kommandiittiyhtiö).

Sole trader and limited company

According to Suomi.fi, if you start a business alone, you can choose a sole trader business, a limited company or a cooperative. The table shows the differences between a sole trader and a limited company, based on Suomi.fi’s comparison and Traficom’s licence instructions.

The right company form depends on your situation. This page is not tax or legal advice. Compare the company forms on Suomi.fi before you decide.

Registrations

1. Start-up notification and Business ID. Submit a start-up notification in the YTJ e-service. A limited company is always set up in the YTJ e-service. A sole trader can also start in MyTax (OmaVero), the Tax Administration’s e-service. If you submit the notification electronically, you get your Business ID immediately.
2. Trade Register. A limited company must always be registered in the Trade Register (kaupparekisteri) of the Finnish Patent and Registration Office. For a sole trader, registration is usually voluntary. PRH’s page explains when it is mandatory.
3. Tax Administration registers. You can register in them with the same start-up notification:
   • prepayment register (ennakkoperintärekisteri): you pay your own tax as prepayments, so your customers do not have to withhold tax
   • VAT register (arvonlisäverovelvollisten rekisteri): mandatory if your turnover is more than EUR 20,000 in a calendar year, also when you sell rides through a taxi dispatch service. You can also register voluntarily with a lower turnover
   • employer register (työnantajarekisteri): required if you regularly pay wages to two or more employees, to one permanent employee and also to temporary ones, or to at least six at the same time. If you have only one permanent employee, you do not need to register, but you must still report the wages you pay to the Incomes Register (tulorekisteri).

Registration in the Tax Administration registers takes about three weeks.

Setting up the company does not give you the right to drive a taxi. Taxi transport needs a licence, so you also need the taxi transport licence.

Applying for the licence

1. Log in to Traficom’s My e-Services (Oma asiointi) and choose road traffic transport licences.
2. Choose your role. A sole trader chooses Personal services, because a sole trader always applies as a private person. For a limited company, choose Acting on behalf of a company/an organisation. Only a person with the right to represent the company can do this, either through their role in the Trade Register or with an authorisation.
3. Fill in the application carefully. You usually do not need attachments, because Traficom gets the information it needs from other authorities’ systems. You do not need to attach a certificate of the entrepreneur examination.
4. You get the licence decision by post in about three weeks. Requests for more information make the processing longer.

The taxi car

• Licensed use. The car must be registered for licensed use (luvanvarainen käyttö) if you use it as a taxi even part of the time. A car in licensed use has roadworthiness inspections more often than a car in private use.
• Adding the car to the licence. From 1 January 2027, the taxi cars of a taxi transport licence holder must be added to the licence. You do this in My e-Services, free of charge. The car must be registered for licensed use and be in the exclusive possession of the licence holder, which means the licence holder is its owner or holder.
• Taxi plates. From 1 January 2027, you can order taxi plates (taksikilvet) at inspection stations that offer registration services. You cannot order them in advance. Only a car added to a transport licence can get taxi plates. From 1 July 2027, taxi plates are mandatory on every car used in taxi transport.
• Taximeter. From 1 February 2027, a taximeter (taksamittari) is mandatory in every taxi, and it is checked in the periodic inspection. Only a repair shop with a licence from Traficom may install or repair a taximeter.

The penalties are listed on the page Taxi law 2026.

If you drive yourself

The licence holder must make sure that the driver has a valid taxi driving licence. This also applies to you when you drive in your own company. From 1 November 2026, a new driver needs 21 hours of taxi driver training before the taxi driver examination. The steps to the taxi driving licence are on the page Become a taxi driver.