Using the certificate service – organisations and natural persons from other countries
This page contains instructions related to the Tax Administration certificate service, to be used by foreign organisations and individuals.
Signing in to the Tax Administration’s certificate service
Foreign individual taxpayers and others need to use the Finnish Authenticator application (of the Finnish Digital Agency, DVV) to identify themselves electronically.
Download and activate the Finnish Authenticator before login. Then you can continue and use the app for further logins later. The Finnish Authenticator is functional both for production certificates and testing certificates. Read more: Activation of the Finnish Authenticator application – Suomi.fi
In matters relating to production certificates you can use Suomi.fi authorisations besides using strong authentication. Read more about how organisations and individual taxpayers can utilise the certificate service (see “authorisations” and “how to request a production certificate”).
In matters relating to test certificates it is enough if you have activated the Finnish Authenticator app alone.
If you have become a user of the Finnish Authenticator you can sign in to the certificate service, make interface requests, make requests and orders for different certificates.
Read general instructions for the Certificate service
Using a foreign company ID code for requesting a certificate
The following types of company identifiers are accepted:
- the Finnish Business ID
- an ID code issued by a foreign country (no format requirements)
- an Incomes Register identifier (only for Incomes Register data users)
- a VAT number (the European VAT Number format)
- an artificial identification code (acceptable for testing certificates, the format is the same as the Business ID)
In matters relating to production certificates the type of the identifier of the company will depend on the type of the user’s identifier when logging in.
Example 1
An individual taxpayer from a foreign country used the Finnish Authenticator for login. The individual taxpayer also has a Suomi.fi authorisation mandate for a foreign organisation. At login, a drop-down list will appear, and the individual should select the particular foreign organisation on the list, and then log in as an authorised user and continue managing the organisation’s taxes and reports. The individual makes a certificate subscription. Foreign company identifiers will be shown on production certificates automatically. Alternatively, in the case of a VAT number – if the individual user’s authorisation is for the taxes of a foreign company having a VAT number, the production certificate will show the VAT number instead.
Example 2
A Finnish organisation gave a Suomi.fi authorisation to a foreign organisation for login to the Certificate service on behalf of the Finnish organisation. The person representing the foreign organisation is a holder of an actual authorisation (a mandate to represent). The foreign individual utilised the Finnish Authenticator app to log in to the Certificate service.
At login, a drop-down list will appear, and the individual should select the (Business ID and name of the) Finnish organisation on the list, and then log in as an authorised user, to continue managing the Finnish organisation’s taxes and reports. The individual makes a certificate subscription. Finnish Business IDs will be shown on production certificates automatically.
In matters relating to test certificates, the foreign organisation should use its foreign-issued company identifier, but artificial identifiers are placed into service for all test interfaces and testing certificates and all users, including organisations from other countries. The format of the artificial identification code matches the format of the Finnish Business ID. When a foreign organisation submits a request for a testing certificate, an artificial identifier will be shown on it as the certificate’s type.
Using Tax Administration API services with a certificate ordered with a foreign company identifier
The Tax Administration’s certificate service’s certificates are used in these APIs:
- Vero API
- APItamoPKI
- The Incomes Register
- The Positive credit register
When the order for the certificate had been made with a foreign company identifier, not all of the Tax Administration’s interfaces will accept the certificate – the specific API calls of each interface define the acceptable certificates, depending on what type of identifier was used when requesting.
Using production certificates with a foreign-requested certificate
- Vero API interfaces only accept certificates requested with a Finnish Business ID.
- The APItamoPKI interfaces accept certificates requested with a Finnish Business ID and with an Incomes Register identifier.
- Incomes Register APIs accept certificates requested with a Finnish Business ID and with an Incomes Register identifier.
- The Positive credit register’s APIs accept certificates requested with a Finnish Business ID and with an identifier issued by a foreign country.
Using testing certificates with a foreign-requested certificate
- The test interfaces of Vero API accept certificates of the articifial type (format of the Business ID) for test purposes.
- The test interfaces of APItamoPKI accept certificates of the articifial type (format of the Business ID) for test purposes.
- The Incomes Register test interfaces accept certificates of the articifial type (format of the Business ID) for test purposes.
- The Positive credit register’s test interfaces accept certificates of the articifial type (format of the Business ID) for test purposes.
If a foreign identifier is not accepted in the API service, the foreign company or organisation cannot utilise the related certificate for API calls. In that case, the foreign organisation can:
- Ask a Finnish company to authorise the foreign organisation to request a certificate for a Finnish Business ID.
- Declare the tax-related amounts and information in MyTax, if this is feasible.
- Contact the API service concerned to ask for further instructions. Fill out an observation form for this purpose.