Business tax return (Form 5)

The turn of the year means it's time for toiminimi (sole trader) entrepreneurs to file their tax return. The business tax return (Form 5) must be submitted if you have an active Y-tunnus – even if there was no activity during the tax year.

When you invoice through us using your Y-tunnus, we prepare your business tax return free of charge and submit it to the Finnish Tax Administration before the due date of April 1. The return is prepared based on the material we have (invoices and the expenses you've submitted via the receipt scanner), as well as the information you've provided in the tax return questionnaire.

You'll receive the tax return in the app at the end of March, so you know in advance what information we're about to report.

How do I read the tax return?

Recognition of private use as income: If your company's bookkeeping includes private trips or other use unrelated to business activity, these costs are not tax-deductible. They must be recognized as income on the business tax return, meaning they're added back into taxable income. These appear on the form in section 2.1.

Depreciation: Equipment and fixtures acquired mainly for business use and that serve for more than three years (e.g. a car) are deducted for tax purposes as depreciation over several years, rather than all at once at the time of purchase. This amount appears on the form in section 2.3, with more detailed information in section 5.

Car expenses and mileage log: Always keep a mileage log for business trips. How car expenses are reported depends on the share of business driving. If more than 50% of the total kilometers driven with the car are business trips, the car is considered company property and the details are reported in section 6 of the tax return. If business trips make up less than 50%, it's considered a private car and the details are reported in section 10.

Additional deductions: The tax return allows for an additional deduction for temporary business trips related to your business activity. This includes amounts corresponding to tax-exempt per diem and mileage allowances. These are reported in section 9 of the form.

Deductions outside the bookkeeping: The tax return also reports deductible expenses that haven't been entered in your company's actual bookkeeping. The most common such item is the home office deduction. This is in section 3 of the form. These are expenses that you've reported separately in the tax return questionnaire – and submitted to us separately.

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You'll find detailed instructions for filling in the tax return on the Finnish Tax Administration's website. Please note, however, that you don't need to file the return yourself if you invoice through us with your Y-tunnus and have granted us company authorization. You can use the Finnish Tax Administration's guide to help you interpret the tax return.

Personal tax return

As an entrepreneur, you'll also receive a pre-completed personal tax return from the Finnish Tax Administration for review. You need to check your personal tax return yourself. Its deadline is the same as for the business return. We do not make any changes or checks to your personal tax return.

What can prevent the tax return from being prepared?

The first obstacle is a missing Suomi.fi company authorization. Without the company authorization, we can't access your tax return at all. Follow the instructions found here and grant us the authorization if you haven't already. We'll contact you separately about any missing authorizations.

The second obstacle is that your Pro Light order isn't active. Preparing the tax return requires that your order is active at the time the tax return is being prepared.