Annual information return on payments to non-residents 2021 – Instructions

These instructions are for Form 7809e as well as the VSROSERI, VSRKOERI, VSRMUERI, VSOSYHTV and VSOKVYHT data format specifications.

Overview of changes on the previous year

As of 1 January 2021, pensions, benefits and losses must be reported to the Incomes Register.

Starting 2021, the annual information return on payments to non-residents (VSRAERIE) has been divided into three data flows: Annual information return on dividends paid to non-resident taxpayers (VSROSERI), Annual information return on interest paid to non-resident taxpayers (VSRKOERI) and Annual information return on other payments to non-resident taxpayers (VSRMUERI).

The annual information return on dividends paid to non-residents (VSROSERI) is for submitting a report on dividends paid by non-listed companies and surplus distributed by cooperative societies. In the case of payment of dividends in kind, noncash dividends, etc. the report must specify the appropriate Types of payment (EH or EJ). Dividends paid by listed companies are reported by filing a listed company’s annual information return on dividends paid to non-resident taxpayers (WRP102).

If you file on paper, you can still use Form 7809e to report dividends from a non-listed company paid to non-resident taxpayers as well as cooperative surplus, interest and other payments to non-resident taxpayers.

When and how to file

The payor must file an annual information return on the payments they have made to non-resident taxpayers. The return must be filed on payments such as dividends and interest payments.

You must file the annual information return regardless of whether tax at source was collected or withholding was conducted in Finland. For example, the return must be filed on interest income received by a non-resident taxpayer even if the income is normally exempt from tax under § 9 of the act on income tax (Tuloverolaki 1535/1992).

Submit your annual information return to the Tax Administration by 31 January 2022.

You can file the return online in Ilmoitin.fi or by using the Tax Administration’s web forms. You can also submit the required data by having your accounting software generate the annual information return, if your software has an interface to the Tax Administration. Information returns can also be filed on a paper form that you can download and print out.

You must file your information returns electronically if they concern 5 or more beneficiaries. However, this requirement does not apply to filers who are natural persons or estates of deceased people.

Read more about the different filing methods on the annual information returns page.

How to make corrections

In accordance with the replacement procedure, if you submit a new return with the same identity information, it replaces the return you had submitted earlier. For one beneficiary, there can be no more than just one return with the same identification. If the data elements related to identification contain an error, the data must be reset to zero. The data element must be replaced with a new one.

The identification items relating to this information return are:

• Identifier
• Year of payment
• Payor's ID
• Payment type
• Beneficiary's personal identity code or Business ID
• Personal ID or business ID code (TIN) issued in the country of tax residence
• Beneficiary's date of birth
• Beneficiary's last name, or full business name of a corporate entity
• Beneficiary's first names
• Country code of the country of tax residence
• Account operator’s Business ID
• ISIN code of the payment
• Transaction code or other identifier
• Business ID of the account operator or other filer that submitted the return
• ID code of the securities depository where the share was issued
• Identifier of the software that generated the file

Read more about making corrections to annual information returns.

Non-residency

A person who does not live in Finland is considered a non-resident. Non-resident taxpayers are subject to limited tax liability. A corporate entity is a non-resident taxpayer if it has not been established in accordance with Finnish legislation or if its registered domicile is not in Finland.

Read more:

• Resident and non-resident tax liability and domicile according to tax treaty – natural persons.
• Resident and nonresident tax liability of corporate entities

Information on the payor

Payor-specific details for dividends must also always be given on the summary VSOSYHTV/7812Y/7812 and for payors of surplus, on the VSOKVYHT/7816 summary.

Information on the recipients/beneficiaries

Year of payment

This is the calendar year when the money was paid or when dividends/profit surplus were ready for cash payment to the beneficiary.

For more information, see “Tax to be withheld on paid-out dividends” – Ennakonpidätys osingosta ja Verohallinnolle annettavat ilmoitukset (in Finnish). The rules on payment and reporting of dividends and surplus also apply to non-resident taxpayers.

Beneficiary's name and address (307-311)

The beneficiary’s name and their address in a foreign country of residence must be entered in full. If your beneficiary is a company, enter the full business name (307). If it is a natural person, enter their last name and first names in (307) and (308), respectively.

In the same way, it is important to indicate the beneficiary’s address in a foreign country when you give a report on dividends and other payments made to a nonresident. In order for the payor to withhold tax-at-source at lower rates, the beneficiary’s identification information must be made available (in reference to §10, act on the taxation of non-residents' income (Laki rajoitetusti verovelvollisen tulon verottamisesta 627/1978).

The annual information return must always indicate the beneficial owner’s information unless the Type of payment is C6, interest income. Further instructions for this payment type are given under Type of payment (084) > Interest payments > C6 Interest for which no beneficial owner is reported.

Read more in Payments of dividends, interest and royalties to non-residents.

Beneficiary’s Finnish personal ID or Business ID (083) or date of birth (021)

If the beneficiary is a natural person, enter their Finnish personal ID in the format ddmmyy-NNNT. If they do not have a Finnish personal ID, enter their date of birth in the format ddmmyyyy.

If the beneficiary is a company and they have a Finnish Business ID, enter the business ID in the same field as the personal ID. You can only give a Business ID for payment types C2–C5, D1 and EA–EF. Enter the Business ID in the format 0123456-2bb.

Personal ID or Business ID (313) issued in the country of tax residence

If you are aware of the beneficiary’s Tax Identification Number (TIN), enter it here. 

Check the TIN

As for payment type C6, further instructions are given under Type of payment (084) > Interest payments > C6 Interest for which no beneficial owner is reported.

Country code of the country of tax residence (341)

The country code of the tax-residency country is a required data element. Please note that the country of residence of a non-resident cannot be Finland (FI).

If the payment type is C6 and you do not know the country of residence, enter XX as the country code.

Check the country code (ISO 3166) (www.iso.org).

You can also check the country codes of the countries that Finland has a tax treaty with in the list of tax treaties in force.

Type of payment (084)

Enter the code for the payment type. If you have a beneficiary that received many payments falling into several different categories, you must file separate annual information returns to show each type of payment you have made.

Payments of interest

C2 Interest on deposits
C3 Interest on bonds and debentures or a paid aftermarket bonus
C4 Annual investment-fund profits
C5 Other interest amounts
C6 Interest for which no beneficial owner is reported

Use payment type C2 for deposits that earn interest.

If interest payments were made on bonds, and if aftermarket bonus was paid, it is permissible to not identify the beneficiary. Instead, you can refer to the reporting financial entity of a participating country or the U.S. reporting financial entity, as provided in the FATCA agreement between the USA and Finland, indicating the identity information of the relevant entity that has the financial account connected to the interest or aftermarket bonus you had paid.

In this case, enter the name of the reporting financial entity, its address in the country of residence, and its GIIN number. If no GIIN is available, enter the entity’s TIN issued by its country of residence and the country code of the beneficiary’s country of tax residence. For purposes of this guidance, “financial entity” is the entity where the beneficiary’s bond security is being placed in a financial account.

C7 Interest on assets saved under a long-term savings agreement

C8 Interest paid to an equity savings account

Other payments

D1 Other payments (e.g. scholarships)

Note: If the category of the payment is royalties, and certain others, you must submit a report to the Incomes Register.

D2 Other types of yields on assets saved under a long-term savings agreement

Dividends and cooperative surplus

Also use the following payment types if funds have been distributed from an unrestricted equity fund. Read more about the tax treatment of dividends paid to non-residents in Receipts of dividends, interest and royalties by non-residents.

EA Dividends of direct-investment character within the meaning of the Parent-Subsidiary Directive

Use the EA type of payment for dividends that you have paid to a company within the meaning of Directive 2011/96/EU, the parent-subsidiary Directive, and the company is a direct owner of at least 10% of your company’s (the payer’s) equity. Accordingly, no tax at source has been withheld on the dividends by virtue of § 3, subsection 6 of the act on the taxation of nonresidents’ income.

EB Dividends of direct-investment character within the meaning of a tax treaty

This type of payment must be used if you paid the dividends to a company that owns your (the payer’s) equity to a threshold proportion that has been defined in the tax treaty between Finland and the beneficiary’s country of tax residence.

EC Other dividends, if the underlying shares are nominee-registered, but management is offered to the account holder as a service

ED Dividends other than the previous payment types

EF Payment of dividends to final beneficiaries if the withheld tax has later been refunded by the payor

For payment type EF, only report the amount of tax at source that remains after refund.

EG Payment of dividends to final beneficiaries if tax has been withheld or not withheld at source based on a tax-at-source card

Payment type EG is used in situations where the withholding of tax at source has been conducted according to a tax-at-source card at the moment of payment, or the payment has been adjusted during the year of payment but after distribution of dividends.

EH Dividends distributed in some other form than money

Payment type EH is used if the entire dividend payment was a noncash distribution, for example, if corporate stock was given to shareholders.

The EH payment type must also be applied when only a partial cash payment was made, i.e. a fraction of the dividend amount was paid in cash, or if a cash payment of a transfer tax was made. In this case, use the EH type of payment to indicate the entire dividends (including both the fractions paid as money and the dividends distributed in some other form; and including any transfer tax paid).

EJ Dividends distributed partly as money and partly in some other form

Payment type EJ is used in case the distributing company had decided to pay out dividends partially in cash and partially as corporate stock or in some other noncash form.

If only fractions have been paid as money, report the entire amount of dividends under payment type EH.

EY Surplus from a cooperative society

Amount for which tax has been withheld at source (317)

Enter the amount of income (such as dividends) that was subject to the withholding of tax at source or domestic tax withholding, or would have been subject to it if such withholding were not prevented by tax treaty, directive or legislation.

In this section, also report the value of dividends distributed in some other form than money (line 255). If dividends were distributed both as money and in some other form, enter the total amount (lines 254 and 255) here.

Tax-at-source collected or tax withheld (318)

This line is for reporting how much was withheld, either as tax at source or as ordinary domestic withholding. Enter nothing if you actually did not withhold the tax on the amount you paid to the beneficiary and did not pay it on to the Finnish Tax Administration.

Deduction for tax at source (€510 per month or €17 per day) (321)

Enter the total of deductions, for the entire year, made from wages in accordance with § 6 of the act on the taxation of non-residents' income and capital (Lähdeverolaki, 627/1978). Only report the deduction for tax at source if the payment type is D1.

When tax at source is being withheld, €510 per month is deducted from the gross amount subject to tax at the 35-percent rate. If the amount you paid relates to a shorter time than one month, the deduction should be based on €17 per day. However, the resulting deduction cannot be higher than the beneficiary’s income. Receiving the deduction requires that the beneficiary presents the payor with a tax-at-source card with an entry for the deduction.

Health insurance premium (324)

Only report the health insurance premium withheld from the payment if the person is insured in Finland and no tax has been withheld on the payment according to a non-resident’s tax card.

Type of dividends distributed in some other form than money (246)

If the dividend was distributed in some other form than money, report whether it was distributed as shares (1) or something else (2).

Business ID of company whose shares have been distributed as dividends (247)

If you entered option 1 (shares) in line 246, enter the Business ID of the company whose shares have been distributed as dividends.

Type of dividends distributed in some other form than shares (248)

If you entered option 2 (something else than shares) in line 246, report what type of asset was distributed (e.g. real estate or car).

Dividends paid out as money (gross) (254)

Enter the amount of dividends paid out as money (only for payment types EH and EJ), such as the fractions of dividends paid out as money, or a paid transfer tax.

Value of dividends distributed in some other form than money (255)

Enter the value of dividends distributed in some other form than money.

ISIN code of the corporate share/payment (097)

This information must be filed electronically.

If the dividends are for a nominee-registered share, add a line number after the ISIN in order to facilitate identification of the payments.

Transaction code or other identifier (049)

This information must be filed electronically.

The code is an identifier given by the filer that separates different filings made with the same identifying details.

Business ID of the account operator or other filer that submitted the return (080)

This information must be filed electronically (VSROSERI, VSRKOERI and VSRMUERI).

This entry is only for third-party filers filing details on behalf of the payor.

Filer’s role (158)

This information must be filed electronically (VSROSERI, VSRKOERI and VSRMUERI).

State whether the filer is an account operator (1), a securities depository (2) or other foreign filer (3). Other foreign filer can be a party that submits information on behalf of a foreign filer, for example.

Name of the securities depository where the share or security was issued (067)

This information must be filed electronically (VSROSERI, VSRKOERI and VSRMUERI).

Enter the name of the domestic or foreign securities depository where the share or security was issued. If you give the name of the depository, also enter the ID code (068).

ID code of the securities depository where the share or security was issued (068)

This information must be filed electronically (VSROSERI, VSRKOERI and VSRMUERI).

Enter the ID code of the domestic or foreign securities depository where the share or security was issued. If you give the ID code of the depository, also enter the name (067).