This is how you need to file and pay VAT
After you have registered your business with one of the VAT special scheme via Finland — so Finland is the Member State of identification — you can file and pay VAT in the scheme in MyTax. If you have appointed an intermediary to represent you, the intermediary files and pays VAT on your behalf and acting in your name.
Sales covered by a special scheme are subject to the VAT rates of the Member States of consumption. You can examine the Commission’s database to look up the VAT rate of the EU country where your goods and services were sold.
File a return for every tax period. For tax periods with no sales and no corrections to information you filed earlier, you must file a “zero VAT return”. If your company has signed up for more than one VAT special scheme, file a VAT return for every scheme and for every tax period.
Pay VAT accordingly, making separate payments relating to each filed return. Please note that you always have to pay the value-added taxes the way you accounted for them on your VAT return although there may be errors on that return. It is not possible to combine any payments as they are connected to specific VAT returns and special schemes.
The Finnish Tax Administration pays the amounts on to the Member States of consumption at the start of the month following the month of your VAT payment.
Deadline for reporting and paying VAT
You can take care of filing and payment as soon as the tax period has ended.
File the return and pay the VAT in such a way that both the return and your payment arrive at the Tax Administration by the end date of the month that follows the tax period’s end date. The deadlines do not move forward if the scheduled due date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or a public holiday.
Note: It may take several banking days for transfers of money to arrive into the Tax Administration’s bank account.
| Special scheme | Deadline to file and pay VAT |
|---|---|
| Union scheme and non-Union scheme |
The quarterly tax period is in effect for both the Union and the non-Union schemes. Accordingly, please file and pay VAT once every calendar quarter:
Note: It may take several banking days for transfers of money to arrive into the Tax Administration’s bank account. Pay in advance of the due date. For example, when you send your VAT return on your sales for July, August and September, please do so and pay the VAT early enough so that your return and the tax payment both arrive at the Tax Administration by 31 October. |
| The import scheme |
The tax period for the import scheme is the calendar month. Accordingly, please file and pay your VAT for every month early enough so that your return and the payment arrive at the Tax Administration by the end date of the month that follows the end of the tax period. Note: It may take several banking days for transfers of money to arrive into the Tax Administration’s bank account. Pay in advance of the due date. For example, when you send your VAT return on your sales for July, please do so and pay the VAT early enough so that your return and the payment both arrive at the Tax Administration by 31 August. |
If you file or pay late
After 10 days have elapsed from the due date, if your business has not filed or paid VAT on time – or just a part of the VAT is paid – your business will receive a reminder letter from the Tax Administration. However, if an intermediary represents you, only the intermediary receives the reminder.
After you have filed your return and paid the VAT accordingly, the Tax Administration passes the information and the payments on to the Member State of consumption. That Member State exercises control over the filing and payment of VAT. If the Member State of consumption finds that it is not receiving the returns and the taxes on time, it can take action to recover the unpaid amounts.
All businesses that have signed up for the special scheme through Finland must always use MyTax to file their returns. The business can pay its VAT in MyTax up to the date when the EU country where the goods or services were sold, the Member State of consumption, has issued a payment reminder to the business, or to its intermediary, because the business had not paid the VAT on time.
After the Member State of consumption begins to take action to recover the tax, the business can no longer pay it in MyTax. Instead, it must pay it to the Member State of consumption. The Member State of consumption imposes penalty fees for any neglect. These fees must also be paid to the Member State of consumption.
If a business fails to file and pay its taxes again and again, the Tax Administration dismisses the business from the special scheme.
If your business no longer uses the special scheme, remember to submit the final VAT return
If the special scheme is no longer used, the company or its intermediary must submit a final VAT return and pay the value-added taxes accordingly. The final VAT return must contain the sales information for the final tax period and any corrections to errors that relate to earlier periods.
If it turns out to be necessary to make some further corrections to your final VAT return, you must direct your submittal to the Member State of consumption. This means that you must send the corrections and pay the related VAT to that Member State, the country where you sold goods or services. You can contact the Member State of consumption if it is necessary to do so.
Frequently asked questions
When you are submitting a VAT return in any of the special schemes, you cannot claim VAT deductions.
Businesses can deduct the Finnish VAT that has been included in the purchases that were necessary for their sales
- if the business also conducts other business in Finland, not only the activity relating to the special scheme, and
- if the business has submitted an application for Finnish VAT registration due to its conduct of the above business.
In this case, you can claim the VAT of the purchases, entering the amount under Deductible VAT on your VAT return.
If in order to support its sales within the special scheme, a Finnish business buys goods or services in another EU country, the Finnish business can submit a request for VAT refunds to claim deductions. Read more about how to submit a request for VAT refunds for the VAT included in a purchase made in another EU country
Note: If your business not only conducts an activity covered by the special scheme in the other EU country but also conducts other business, you must examine the VAT rules in that country to find out whether a local VAT registration is necessary, because the other business may require a local VAT registration. If it turns out that the business must submit an application for VAT registration, the business can file local VAT returns in the other EU country to claim deductions related to the business’s activity covered by the special scheme.
After you file a VAT return within a VAT special scheme, MyTax performs a calculation to arrive at the VAT you must pay. The calculation is a sum of the VAT amounts going to the different EU Member States.
- However, the calculation only covers the VAT of those Member States of consumption for which the VAT, as reported on the VAT return, remains positive, i.e. there is an amount of VAT to pay.
- The calculation includes a particular Member State’s of consumption VAT adjustments or corrections, if any, having to do with your taxes declared previously concerning that particular Member State.
- If the VAT return you have submitted contains a corrected amount that reduces a previously declared value-added tax, it diminishes the amount going to the particular Member State of consumption. The result for that Member State of consumption may be negative. In this case, such a negative VAT will not be included in the sum total at all.
Information on any corrections of the above type is passed on to every Member State of consumption. After that, the Member State of consumption refunds the VAT paid in excess, or applies the refundable amount on your business’s other taxes according to the legislation of that Member State.
You can log in to MyTax to find out whether any unpaid taxes have been recorded. Please note that these unpaid taxes are not displayed on the home page as part of your current balance. Consequently, the unpaid taxes do not show on your summary of tax payment status, either. You can instead find any unpaid taxes in MyTax under:
- On the Paying taxes page, under the lines for each of the different VAT special schemes.
- On your balance specification: select the appropriate scheme on the list.
- On the reminder letter that the special scheme sends you electronically if any unpaid amounts are outstanding.
The VAT special scheme is for reporting and paying other EU Member States’ taxes. For this reason, it is not possible to pay them together with your business’s Finnish taxes that go to the Finnish Tax Administration. Accordingly, no information on unpaid taxes is found on the MyTax home page or on the balance specification page.