Accounting firm or other agent: how to request authorisation to take care of someone else’s taxes
Your accounting firm needs an authorisation mandate for handling its clients’ taxes. You can log in to Suomi.fi to send a request to the natural person, company or other corporate entity electronically.
Note: it is necessary for the person, company, etc. to answer your request and accept it, i.e. your client must give you the authorisation mandate. The way they do so depends on whether the client uses their personal e-bank codes or a mobile certificate or certificate card.
How to authorise employees of your accounting firm — how to send an online request to your client
Give authorisations inside your accounting firm
If you are the Managing Director, manager, or another holder of the right to sign for the accounting firm, you can give an authorisation mandate via Suomi.fi to anyone of your employees as follows:
- a representative’s right to grant a mandate. This means that your employee (who works as an accountant) can send out requests for acceptance of an authorisation as described in the instructions on this page.
- a specific mandate for representation, which makes it possible for your employee to handle the client’s affairs as the client has instructed the accounting firm when giving it the authorisation.
If you prefer, you can give the mandate to your employee later. When you give the mandate to represent, do not forget to select the appropriate themes (like “Managing tax affairs”) – in other words, the themes the accountant deals with on the client's behalf.
In addition, accounting firms can restrict their employees’ mandates: you can use a mandate specifier to limit or target a mandate to apply only to a certain property, a client company or its department. The MyTax view on each employee’s workstation lists the clients accordingly. For more information, see Suomi.fi: Grant an authorisation as a company or organisation — “How do I use a mandate specifier?”.
Find out the authorisations you need
“Managing tax affairs” allows you take care of all the client’s tax matters. The other authorisation mandates allow you to take care of only some specified matters.
Read the descriptions of different authorisations to decide which authorisation you need
You can select the authorisation later on Suomi.fi.
Request an authorisation on Suomi.fi
Log in to the Suomi.fi e-authorisation service with your personal e-bank codes, a mobile certificate or a certificate card. After that, you can submit an authorisation request to take care of your client’s matters.
Go to Suomi.fi e-Authorizations
Instructions on Suomi.fi: How an organisation requests mandates
Ask the client to accept your authorisation request
- If the client has personal e-bank codes, a mobile or card certificate, ask the client to log in to Suomi.fi and accept your request.
Note: if your client is a company or organisation, the people who have the right to sign for the company are listed in the company’s Articles of Association. These people are the ones who can accept your request.
Instructions on Suomi.fi: Approving a mandate request as an organisation
Instructions on Suomi.fi: Approving a mandate request as a person
- If your client does not have any e-bank codes, mobile certificates, etc., the client can make a reservation and accept the authorisation request at the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (tax office on Åland).
Ask the client to take a passport, photo ID card, driving licence or some other identification with a photo with them. Your client must be identifiable from the photo.
If one person accepts the request on all shareholders’, co-owners’, etc. behalf, he or she must also have:- a power of attorney showing that he or she has the right to sign on all the shareholders’ behalf (the power of attorney cannot be more than 6 months old)
- photocopies of the passports or photo ID cards of all the shareholders who signed the power of attorney and who are not present at the tax office
- if the authorisation concerns an estate of a deceased person and the estate has a Business ID, a photocopy of the list of parties to the estate.
Make a reservation for the services provided by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency
You can manage the client's taxes online
When your request is accepted, Suomi.fi Authorizations will show your mandate.
You are able to log in to the Tax Administration’s e-services with your personal e-bank codes, a mobile certificate or a certificate card.
After logging in to MyTax, select “Act on behalf of a company” or “Act on behalf of someone else”, depending on whether you are taking care of a company’s or an individual client’s taxes.
On the accounting firm employee’s workstation, MyTax will now show all the names of the firm’s clients that this employee is authorised to handle taxes for.
Frequently asked questions
See instructions on Suomi.fi:
Any Suomi.fi authorisations your company has granted will remain in force even after you have submitted a notification of termination of business to the Trade Register. After the termination of business, however, the company cannot grant new authorisations in the Suomi.fi service or use the e-services by itself, because the right to use e-services requires that the name of the company’s representative is in the Trade Register. However, a party who has previously been granted an authorisation can continue to take care of the company’s matters.
Example: A limited company has granted an authorisation to an accounting firm. When the limited company’s business activities end, the company’s managing director can no longer change the company’s authorisations. However, the accounting firm can continue to act on behalf of the limited company.
In a case like this, a person who has had the right to represent the company can request an authorisation on Suomi.fi. The type of authorisation to select in the request is ‘mandate for transactions’.