Reform to make reporting easier for companies

The Tax Administration has been assigned the task of preparing the reform of companies’ official reporting. A key solution proposed is a national register for the financial data of companies and organisations. The implementation of the reform will require legislative amendments.

Financial data register will enable centralised data transfer

In the future, companies and organisations will be able to use automation to report financial data directly from their financial administration systems to the financial data register. Data transfer will be carried out in accordance with commonly agreed procedures and standards. Data from the register will be transferred to data users using automation. The public authorities and other data users will obtain the data required for reporting from the financial register in accordance with the right of access to data laid down in law. 

The aim is to clarify the reporting of financial data to public authorities and reduce the need for service use. Companies will be able to meet their reporting obligations with the data generated as part of their business activities.

The preparatory phase is estimated to last until the end of 2027. The deployment of the financial data register is set to take place in 2030, after which its use can be gradually expanded. The implementation of the reform will require changes to legislation. Legislative drafting may affect the schedule.

The start date of the digital VAT reporting obligation (VAT in the Digital Age, a.k.a. the ViDa Directive) for e-invoicing data is 1 July 2030.   The effect of digital VAT reporting on the reform is that the data content of the e-invoice data flow would comply with the obligations set for digital VAT reporting.   

Development work carried out together with companies and data users

The preparatory phase of the reform is estimated to last until the end of 2027. We will carry out the preparatory work in collaboration with companies and stakeholders. You can participate in the development work by responding to surveys, interview studies or regular development forums. 

Accounting co-creation group:

The working group aims to identify the need to standardise accounting data to the extent that the data in the chart of accounts is needed in official reporting.  The aim is to reduce the administrative burden on companies and find solutions that benefit both private actors and public authorities.

The working group includes more than 50 representatives of private and public organisations: business interest organisations, software suppliers in the financial administration sector, accounting firms, financial administration departments of large enterprises and other people working in financial administration. In addition to the Finnish Tax Administration, public authorities involved in the group include Statistics Finland, the State Treasury and the Finnish Patent and Registration Office. 

Making official reporting easier for companies 

The idea is that a company obtains the data required by the public authorities automatically when it records an invoice in its system or enters a transaction in its accounting records. Manual steps would be eliminated from the data transfer.

Data in a shared format flowing through automated processes will promote the implementation of the once-only reporting principle and simplify official reporting for companies.
 
A key objective of the financial data register is to eliminate overlapping official reporting by promoting the once-only principle. Overlapping reporting will be reduced gradually as more public authorities join the system. 

The intention is to abandon separate reporting channels, procedures, forms and statistical inquiries, which will make companies’ official reporting a simpler process. 

There would also be fewer errors in reporting, as it would be possible to perform more extensive and up-to-date checks on the data already at the time of data submission. 

Facilitating reporting will require reforms to data flow structures

The reform requires standardising companies’ financial data. Standardised data is interpreted consistently and would also enable shared use internationally.

At first, there would be three reported data flows: accounting data, data supplementary to accounting data and e-invoice data. The data content would consist of the data that public authorities need to carry out their statutory tasks, not companies’ entire accounting. 

Accounting data would be reported on the account level in aggregated form. The data supplementary to accounting data are not included in the accounting but are required in reporting. This would include data related to international tax assessments and the transfer of assets. The data flow content of e-invoices would comply with the requirements set for digital VAT reporting (VAT in the Digital Age). 

Data users in the first phase

In the first phase, the data would be used by the Tax Administration, Statistics Finland, pension insurance companies, Kela, the Incomes Register Unit and the Grey Economy Information Unit.

• The Finnish Tax Administration would use the data in companies’ income taxation and value-added taxation.

• Statistics Finland would utilise the data in producing data and statistics.

• The Incomes Register Unit would use the data for presenting the income data of self-employed individuals on a Positive credit register extract.

• Kela would use the data in the granting of benefits.

• The Grey Economy Information Unit would use the data in its reports on the underground economy.

The data would be shared with different authorities according to their respective rights of access to data. 

After the first phase has been implemented, it will be assessed how other public authorities and parties could also use the data in performing their statutory tasks. In the future, it will be possible to use the system to transfer financial data more extensively for different purposes. 

Reform for reporting financial data is necessary

Companies’ reporting obligations have increased due to both national and EU regulation. 

The European Commission’s political guidelines and the Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030 guide EU Member States to reduce companies’ administrative burden and promote the application of digital solutions.

Requirements set at the national and European Union levels and the rapid development of digitalisation increase the need to reform data collection and transfer. The planned solution also supports the primacy of digital services.

From the public authorities’ perspective, the reform involves building a common infrastructure across administrative branches, which aims to improve customer guidance and enhance the activities of the public authorities involved.

It also promotes Finland’s aim to be a technological frontrunner and a leading country in the data economy.