73B Business partnership's dividends and co-operative surplus received – Instructions

Form 73B is for itemising, by source of income and type of payer, the dividends and co-operative surplus received by a business partnership. Enter the amounts of the dividends and co-operative surplus received in full in the form's columns.

If you are correcting a tax return you have previously submitted, please file an entirely new return to replace the original one. Re-submit all the details you filed before. It is not enough to only fix an incorrect detail or to add a new one.

Factors affecting the taxation of dividends:

Is the company paying the dividends a publicly traded company or a non-publicly traded company?
Is the state of domicile of the company paying the dividends in an EU/EEA member state or a non-EEA country?
If the country of domicile of the company paying the dividends is a non-EEA country, has Finland signed a tax treaty with that country?

Read more about the taxation of dividend income (detailed guidance in Finnish and Swedish, link to Finnish)

Factors affecting the taxation of a co-operative surplus:

Is the co-operative a publicly traded co-operative or a non-publicly traded co-operative?
Is the co-operative's domicile in an EU/EEA member state, or in a non-EEA country?
How many members did the co-operative have at the end of the accounting period preceding the decision to distribute surplus funds? Notwithstanding the above, the number of members only affects the surplus included in the business partnership's personal source of income.

Read more about the taxation of surplus funds (detailed guidance in Finnish and Swedish, link to Finnish)

What is co-operative surplus?

Surplus funds can be, for example,

profit sharing received from a co-operative (previously: interest on cooperative share capital)
assets in general that are distributed from a co-operative's unrestricted equity fund
the basic fund share of a domestic co-operative bank
the profit share and interest on a fund of funds (FOF) investment paid by a domestic co-operative bank
interest on a capital-protected fund paid by a mutual insurance company or an insurance association

1 Partnership details and tax year

Name: Name of business partnership
Business ID or personal identity code: The Business ID of the business partnership.
Tax year: The tax year for which the itemisation is provided.
Accounting period: The business partnership's accounting period.

A Dividends and co-operative surplus relating to a business source of income

In section A, enter all the dividends and co-operative surplus received that are related to business activities. The dividends and surplus funds are added in full to the partnership's business income. The Tax Administration calculates and divides the profit distributed to shareholders for income tax purposes, and previously unused tax-exempt portions are taken into account in the shareholder's tax assessment.

Report the total amount of dividends and surplus relating to a business source of income in the tax return form 6A Business tax return section 2.1 (Business income) "Dividends and co-operative surplus". The shares and participations on which the dividends or surplus received are based must be included in full in the partnership's net assets.

A portion of dividend income is tax-exempt in shareholder tax accounting

Dividends and co-operative surplus funds can be either partly or fully tax-exempt. The tax exemption is implemented in shareholder tax accounting. When the partnership's income is distributed to shareholders, the tax-exempt portions of the dividends and co-operative surplus funds are deducted from each shareholder's share of the income. The tax-exempt portion is determined in accordance with the tax accounting provisions concerning shareholders (§6a and 6d, act on business tax; §5, act on agricultural income tax).

If the tax-exempt portion exceeds the income received by the shareholder from the partnership's same source of income (i.e., the shareholder's share of the income is not sufficient for tax deduction purposes), a portion of the deduction will be carried over to future tax years. The unused portion will be deducted over the next ten years from the income received by the shareholder from the partnership's same source of income. The deduction is made in line with the accrual of income.

The Tax Administration makes the deduction ex officio; the shareholder does not need to file a claim for deduction. After the deduction has been made, the Tax Administration distributes the remaining portion of the income to the shareholder as capital income and earned income.

The shareholder is a person or an estate

If the shareholder is a natural person or an estate, the taxation of dividends and surplus depends on whether they were paid by a publicly traded or non-publicly traded corporation.

The shareholder is a limited liability company or other corporation

If the shareholder is a corporation (e.g. a limited liability company), the dividends and surplus generated by shares/interests included in the corporation's own business activity are tax-exempt when the payer is

a domestic corporation
a corporation, as referred to in the Council Directive 2011/96/EU of 30 November 2011 on the common system of taxation applicable in the case of parent companies and subsidiaries of different Member States (§6a, act on business tax).

Tax exemption also applies to dividends and surplus received from an EU/EEA member state from a type of corporation not referred to in the above directive. The tax exemption is conditional on the corporation distributing the dividends or surplus being taxed at least 10% on the income based on which the dividend or surplus is distributed. Another condition is that the corporation cannot be exempted from taxes or otherwise be given any freedom of choice in terms of paying taxes. Furthermore, the corporation's domicile must be in the state in which taxes are paid, and the definition of domicile must be based on that state's tax laws. The tax treaty also stipulates that the corporation's domicile must be in an EU/EEA member state.

Exceptions to the tax exemption of dividends (detailed guidance in Finnish and Swedish, link to Finnish)

All the other dividends received by the corporation are taxable income. Refunds of profit surplus received from a cooperative society are taxable income if the cooperative can treat such refund as a deductible cost.

1. Dividends received from publicly traded companies in Finland and other EU/EEA member states, and in non-EEA countries with which Finland has signed a tax treaty

The dividends received by the partnership from publicly traded companies.

2. Dividends from non-publicly traded companies in Finland and other EU/EEA member states, and in non-EEA countries with which Finland has signed a tax treaty

The dividends received by the partnership from other than publicly traded companies.

3. Dividends from non-EEA countries with which Finland has not signed a tax treaty.

The dividends received from countries that are not EEA member states and with which Finland has not signed a tax treaty.

4. Surplus from publicly traded co-operatives in Finland and other EU/EEA member states, and in non-EEA countries with which Finland has signed a tax treaty.

The surplus funds received by the partnership from publicly traded co-operatives.

5. Surplus from non-publicly traded co-operatives in Finland, other EU/EEA member states and non-EEA countries

The surplus received by the partnership from non-publicly traded co-operatives. Enter the total amount of surplus received.

B Dividends and co-operative surplus relating to personal source of income

In section B, enter all dividends and co-operative surplus received that are related to a personal source of income.

Report the total amount of dividends and surplus funds relating to a personal source of income in the tax return form 6A Business tax return section 2.3 (Dividends and co-operative surplus relating to personal income source).

The dividends and surplus funds included in the partnership's personal source of income are given to shareholders as income distribution. Do not include them in the partnership's profit on personal income source, i.e., these are not to be reported in the Business tax return form 6A section 'Profit on personal source of income'. The Tax Administration distributes the dividends and surplus funds to be taxed as shareholder income in accordance with each shareholder's share of income in the partnership's income.

1. Dividends received from publicly traded companies in Finland and other EU/EEA member states, and in non-EEA countries with which Finland has signed a tax treaty

The dividends received by the partnership from publicly traded companies.

2. Dividends from non-publicly traded companies in Finland and other EU/EEA member states, and in non-EEA countries with which Finland has signed a tax treaty

The dividends received by the partnership from other than publicly traded companies.

3. Dividends from non-EEA countries with which Finland has not signed a tax treaty

The dividends received from countries that are not EEA member states and with which Finland has not signed a tax treaty.

4. Surplus from publicly traded co-operatives in Finland and other EU/EEA member states, and in non-EEA countries with which Finland has signed a tax treaty.

The surplus funds received by the partnership from publicly traded co-operatives.

5. Surplus from non-publicly traded co-operatives in Finland and other EU/EEA member states, and in non-EEA countries with which Finland has signed a tax treaty, and:

The co-operative has at least 500 members
The co-operative has fewer than 500 members

The surplus received by the partnership from non-publicly traded co-operatives. Enter the total amount of surplus received.

Itemise the surplus funds according to the number of members of the co-operative. Check from the ytj.fi website whether, at the end of the accounting period preceding the decision to distribute surplus funds, the co-operative had at least 500 or fewer than 500 members who had paid the co-operative membership fee.

Calculate the surplus received from each co-operative according to their number of members and enter the sums accordingly either in 'The co-operative has at least 500 members' or in 'The co-operative has fewer than 500 members'.

6. Surplus from non-EEA countries with which Finland has not signed a tax treaty
The surplus received from countries that are not EEA member states and with which Finland has not signed a tax treaty.

7. Fully taxable dividends (dividends received from REIT)

REIT dividends, i.e., dividends received from a real estate investment trust (REIT) company, which are covered by the act on the tax relief for certain limited liability companies engaged in apartment rental activities. The dividends received from REIT companies are fully taxable income.

If the shares in the REIT owned by the partnership are related to its business or agricultural source of income, report the dividends accordingly under the correct source of income in the form's section A (Dividends and co-operative surplus relating to a business source of income) or in the section C (Dividends and co-operative surplus relating to an agricultural source of income).

The form does not have separate lines for reporting the REIT dividends relating to these sources of income. Report them on line 1 (Dividends from publicly traded companies in Finland and other EU/EEA member states, and in non-EEA countries with which Finland has signed a tax treaty).

C Dividends and co-operative surplus relating to agricultural source of income

In section C, enter all dividends and co-operative surplus received that are related to an agricultural source of income.

Include the total amount of the dividends and surplus relating to an agricultural source of income in the profits from agricultural activity in the tax return form 6A Business tax return section 2.4 (Total profit from agricultural source of income).

In addition, report the total amount of the dividends and co-operative surplus relating to an agricultural source of income in Form 7C (Details of business partnership's agricultural source of income).