Fuelling a tractor with fuel oil in agriculture and forestry

The use of a tractor in agriculture and forestry

In transport related to agriculture and forestry, the intended use of the tractor determines whether the daily fee must be paid. This may include a tractor owned by a farmer, private individual or a contractor, as long as it is only used in agriculture and forestry. 

In forestry, you may fuel a tractor with fuel oil in the following cases:

• moving a tractor used for timber harvesting to a work site or from one work site to another without transporting timber on a public road 
• moving timber across a public road.

In agriculture, you may fuel a tractor with fuel oil in the following cases:

• transport of seeds, fertilisers, soil conditioners, concentrated feed and other agricultural goods to a farm;
• the transfer and application of sludge to your own or another farmer’s field or the transport of the sludge to a tank shared by agricultural operators; 
• the transport of milk, meat, cereals and other similar agricultural products produced by the agricultural operator to a dairy, processing plant or a similar buyer;
• the transport of other goods required in agriculture, as long as the transport is for the entrepreneur’s own use.

If dairy products are transported from the dairy to commercial enterprises or schools, for example, the tractor must use diesel oil or pay the fuel fee. Likewise, if a commercial enterprise transports goods such as seed or concentrated feed to the farm, and a fee is charged for the transport, the transport is liable to a fuel fee.

Tractor use by farmers and forestry workers

A farmer refers to an individual who is taxed in accordance with either the Act on agricultural income tax or the Act on forestry income tax.

As a farmer and a forestry worker, you may fuel a tractor with fuel oil without a daily fee in agriculture and forestry tasks related to:

• Procurement of timber for the farmer’s own farm or for the sale of earth and aggregates
  • This includes rented farms, fields, and sand deposits.
  • Please note that transport and sale of earth and rock material must be part of the operations of the farmer’s own farm. If the work is carried out on behalf of a separate company, the EUR 5 daily fee must be paid for the transport.
• The farmer’s own horticultural activity or fur farming even if these activities are a separate business to agriculture and forestry.
• Production for private use by the farmer.

Private households of people engaged in agricultural or forestry work

• A tractor may be fuelled with fuel oil for transport by persons engaged in agricultural or forestry work for their own household.
• Part-time farmers, who receive their principal income from practising some other trade, are also entitled to use fuel in transport related to their private households.
• It is required that the tractor be held by the farmer or forestry worker or a group of farmers or forestry workers. It is irrelevant who drives the tractor as long as the transport/driving is related to the farmer’s or forestry worker’s private household and the driving is for the benefit of the farmer.

Transport carried out for a fee cannot be considered to relate to the private household.  

• If a fee is paid for the transport, whether with money or in some other form such as through work provided in return, a fuel fee must be paid for the transport.

Examples of private household transport:

• the transport of timber sawn by the farmer for personal use from the farm to the sawmill and back. 
• the transport of building materials when the timber or building materials are used for the construction of buildings or facilities related to the private household. 
• the home of the part-time farmer is not located on the farm, firewood may be transported from the actual farm or forest estate to the farmer's home using fuel oil.