Changes to the payment of fines, traffic penalty fees and other sanctions

Vuodenvaihteessa voimaan tulevan lakimuutoksen myötä poliisin määräämistä sakoista, liikennevirhemaksuista ja muista seuraamuksista poistuu kiinteä maksuaika. Lisäksi kaikki seuraamukset ovat täytäntöönpanokelpoisia vasta lainvoimaisina. Seuraamuksen saajan kannalta tämä tarkoittaa, että maksuvelvollisuus alkaa vasta, kun sakko tai muu seuraamus tulee lainvoimaiseksi.

As a result of the legislative amendment that will enter into force in Finland at the beginning of 2026, a fixed payment period will be removed from fines, traffic penalty fees and other sanctions imposed by the police. Moreover, all sanctions will be enforceable only when they are legally valid. From the point of view of the person who is sanctioned, this means that the obligation to pay does not begin until the fine or other sanction becomes legally valid.

The amendments to the Act on the Enforcement of a Fine and to the Act on the Imposition of a Fine and Petty Fine will enter into force on 1 January 2026. There will be changes to the payment and enforcement of fines, traffic penalty fees and other pecuniary sanctions, to the application of the fine procedure and to the monetary amount of crime victim surcharges.

The most visible change for a customer of administration is that the fine slip or any other decision document no longer contains a due date. This may seem confusing at first, because up to now the law has stipulated, among other things, that a fine or traffic penalty fee must be paid within 30 days of service.

From the beginning of 2026, the obligation to pay depends on whether the sanction is legally valid or not. The legal validity of a fine or other sanction refers to the final nature of the decision.

“A fine or other sanction becomes legally valid when a claim for its rectification or an appeal against it can no longer be made. If no appeal or claim for rectification is lodged against the sanction, it will become legally valid after the expiry of the appeal or rectification period, in other words 30 days after the decision was served,” says Chief Superintendent Konsta Arvelin of the National Police Board.

A fine can be paid right away

A fine, traffic penalty fee or other sanction can in practice be paid immediately after it has been served. However, the actual obligation to pay does not begin until the sanction becomes legally valid and the Legal Register Centre begins enforcement. If the sanction has not been paid in full by then, the Legal Register Centre will send a payment reminder for the amount that has not yet been paid, also indicating the due date.

“All pecuniary sanctions imposed by the police include instructions that provide more detailed information on payment, enforcement and appeal. Customers of administration should read the instructions they receive carefully and act according to them,” Konsta Arvelin points out.

In the future, the crime victim surcharge will be 60 euros

In addition to these changes, the amounts of crime victim surcharges will be increased. A crime victim surcharge is added to the fine if the most severe punishment for the offence is imprisonment. The purpose of crime victim surcharges is to secure the availability of the necessary support services for victims of crime. The amount of the crime victim surcharge imposed in the fine procedure is 60 euros if the offence was committed on 1 January 2026 or after it, but it is 40 euros if the offence was committed before the beginning of 2026. 

Penal orders are abandoned

The conditions for the fine procedure will also be amended by removing the type of fine known as penal order. The use of the fine procedure always requires the consent of both the injured party and the suspect of the crime. Earlier, a suspect who refused the fine procedure may have been given a penal order, which the suspect could pay to give their consent retrospectively. As a result of this, it was possible to complete the case in the fine procedure without a court hearing.

“If the suspect does not consent to the fine procedure, the fine case will now be transferred immediately to the pre-trial investigation, which will be carried out by the police to the extent required by the consideration of charges,” Konsta Arvelin says.