Finland: Employer and Employee Compliance Matters, some reminders
Finland: Employer and Employee Compliance Matters, some reminders
Employer Payroll Report
In Finland, all employers are expected to submit an Employer Payroll Report (EPR) to the Tax Administration concerning all wages and other compensation the employer has paid, including various categories of income, facts about assets, liabilities, and credit amounts.
The general rule is that EPRs must be submitted by the end of January following the calendar year of payment. In other words, wages and other compensations paid in 2009 must have been reported in the EPR by 31 January 2010. The employer can file the EPR either electronically or on paper forms.
It is important to note that in certain circumstances, an EPR must be submitted even if the salary will not be taxable in Finland. Finnish employers or foreign employers with permanent establishments in Finland that pay wages to a nonresident, should submit the annual notification for payments to persons with limited tax liability in Finland.
Also, foreign employers may be obliged to submit EPRs even if they do not have a permanent establishment in Finland.
Application for Extension of Time to File Information Returns
The local tax office may extend the due date to file an information return. The taxpayer should request an extension. The regional tax office will decide on each case separately. A request should be delivered to the regional tax office by the information return’s due date before the closing hour of the office.
The maximum time of extension cannot be longer than two weeks.
Making Corrections
Those filing tax returns are expected to correct any known errors in the submitted returns. They should do this without prompting, as soon as the error has been detected. The last preferred date for 2009 corrections is 12 March 2010, when there will still be enough time to include the corrected amounts in the taxpayers’ pre-completed tax returns.
Finland and Advance Supplementary Tax Payments
Individual taxpayers have a right to make a supplementary payment of advance tax on their own initiative if it seems that the amount of advance taxes withheld or paid during the year is not going to cover their tax liability. In this way, the individual taxpayers can avoid paying interest and penalties.
Individual taxpayers can make supplementary advance tax payments during the first nine months of the year following the year when the income was received. The last date of payment for year 2009 was 1 February 2010, to avoid interest completely. Any individual taxpayer can make a supplementary payment in the period from February to September 2010 to reduce the interest calculated on unpaid tax. The last acceptable date of payment is 30 September 2010.
The amount of interest on outstanding taxes is 0.5 percent when the outstanding taxes are EUR 10,000 at the most. The interest is 3.0 percent for the part of the outstanding taxes exceeding EUR 10,000. A reduction of EUR 20 is permitted from the interest to be paid. Hence the interest for tax year 2009 is to be paid only when the outstanding taxes are more than (approximately) EUR 4,780.
Source: KPMG
