As a foreign individual, you can take care of the company’s tax matters in MyTax or authorise someone else to take care of them. These instructions are for you if you are a foreign individual with the right to sign for a Finnish or foreign company and you are taking care of the company’s tax matters in Finland.
If you do not have a Finnish personal ID or a Finnish method of identification, you will need the following to use e-services:
- a UID (foreign individual’s unique identifier) and the Finnish Authenticator app for electronic identification
- a Suomi.fi authorisation.
The representative must request the UID and the Suomi.fi authorisation separately following these instructions. If the foreign company already has a Business ID, use it when requesting Suomi.fi authorisations.
Note! A Suomi.fi authorisation granted to a foreign assignee can be valid for up to 3 years. After 3 years, the authorisation has to be requested and granted again, if necessary.
1. Before you start filling in the authorisation application
- Reserve enough time for making the application.
- You will need the following information in order to complete the application:
- A Trade Register extract or, if the company is not in the Finnish Trade Register, other document proving that you have the right to act on the company’s behalf. This must be the original, certified version of the document.
- A copy of each signatory’s valid passport or identity card. The copy must be an original and certified copy.
- See more detailed instructions on dvv.fi: Mandate service provided by officials: Notarisation of foreign documents
- A UID (foreign individual’s unique identifier) and the Finnish Authenticator app for accessing the services.
2. Register your UID (foreign individual’s unique identifier)
You need a UID and the Finnish Authenticator app to request Suomi.fi authorisations and to log in to e-services, such as MyTax.
- If you have a Finnish personal ID and a Finnish method of identification, you do not need to request a foreign individual’s unique identifier. Move on to step 3 of these instructions.
- Register in the foreign individual’s e-identification service to get your personal UID. Read the instructions on Suomi.fi: Activation of the Finnish Authenticator application
- Go to the app store on your smartphone and download the Finnish Authenticator app.
- You can identify yourself to the Finnish Authenticator app by submitting a photo of your face (selfie) and a photo of a proof of ID, such as your passport or official identity card. Note! The identification must be fully completed before you can request Suomi.fi authorisation.
- When you receive a notification that your Finnish Authenticator can now be used for identity authentication, you can request Suomi.fi authorisation.
3. Submit an application with which you request the right to grant authorisations
Before you start filling in the form
- Determine what type of authorisation you will need: There are different types of Suomi.fi authorisations for different situations. The “Managing of tax affairs” authorisation allows you to take care of all of the company’s tax matters. The “Filing of tax returns and other reports” authorisation, on the other hand, does not allow you to use MyTax but does allow you to file tax returns on the company’s behalf.
- The authorisation request can concern either a right to grant a mandate or a representative’s right to grant a mandate.
- A right to grant a mandate must be requested for the matters that the company must take care of using the e-services. The right of authorisation can be registered to one or multiple individuals. Individuals with the right to grant authorisations can log in to the Suomi.fi authorisation service and grant an authorisation either to themselves or to a company employee or an accounting firm. For example, the authorisation can allow the authorised party to use Tax Administration e-services on the company’s behalf.
- Representative’s right to grant a mandate can be requested for an individual who represents a company or organisation that has been authorised by another individual, company or organisation. When an individual has the representative’s right to grant authorisations, they can grant authorisations to other individuals to act on the behalf of the company or organisation that they represent. These individuals can then act in the name of the company or organisation they represent to take care of matters on the behalf of the party that authorised their company or organisation.
- Apply for an authorisation in the Suomi.fi e-service. These instructions will remain open in another tab when you click a link to Suomi.fi. You can refer back to these instructions while you fill in the application.
Instructions for filling in the authorisation application
Go to the Suomi.fi page Authorisation with an application (opens in a new tab)
First, read section 1 of the Suomi.fi page to see what attachments are required for the application and what other requirements there are. After that, submit the application in section 2.
- Stage 1/10 Assignor:
- Select the option that corresponds to your company. Note! If the foreign company has a Business ID, use it when requesting Suomi.fi authorisations.
- “Finnish company or organisation with a Business ID”
- “Foreign company or organisation with a Finnish Business ID”
- “Foreign company without a Finnish Business ID”
- Stage 2/10 Assignor’s status:
- Select the option stating that the signatory is a person authorised to represent the assignor.
- Stage 3/10 Assignor’s details:
- If you selected the option “Finnish company or organisation with a Business ID” or “Foreign company or organisation with a Finnish Business ID” in stage 1:
- Enter the company’s Business ID.
- Enter the company’s name.
- If you selected the option “Foreign company without a Finnish Business ID” in stage 1:
- Select the country code according to the company’s country of residence.
- Enter company’s VAT number or its corporate ID in the country of registration.
- Enter the assignor’s name, i.e. the company whose authorisations the application concerns.
- Stage 4/10 Mandate type: Select “Right to grant a mandate”.
- Having a right to grant a mandate means that after the right has been registered by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV), you can authorise other parties – including yourself – to act on the company’s behalf in official matters.
- A mandate for transactions means a Suomi.fi authorisation that allows the authorised party to take care of the company’s affairs in practice. For example, the “Managing of tax affairs” authorisation gives you access to MyTax. When you have the right to grant authorisations, you can grant an authorisation for managing tax matters in the Suomi.fi e-Authorizations service.
- Stage 5/10 Assignee: Proceed to the next stage.
- Stage 6/10 Assignee’s details:
- If you have a Finnish personal ID, select “Finnish personal identity code” as the identifier type. Otherwise, select “foreigner’s identifier”.
- Enter your personal ID or UID, first name and last name. This section is for the personal ID and name of the person whose right to grant authorisations the application concerns.
- Select “Add as an assignee”.
- At this stage, only enter the details of individuals for whom you are requesting the right to grant mandates. After all the details have been entered, remember to click “Add as an assignee”.
- Stage 7/10 Mandate themes: You can filter the mandate themes by a search word, such as “mytax” or “tax affair”. Select all the themes relating to the matters that you wish the authorised representative to manage on the company’s behalf. If you select the “Managing of tax affairs” authorisation, the authorised party can take care of all of the company’s tax matters. The “Filing of tax returns and other reports” authorisation does not provide access to the MyTax e-service. Note that in this situation you are not required to use a mandate specifier. This is why you will move directly from stage 7 to stage 9 of the application.
- Stage 9/10 Validity: An authorisation granted with a UID can be valid for up to 3 years. An authorisation granted with a personal ID can be valid for up to 25 years. Select the start and end date of the right to grant authorisations. Note that you will have to remember to renew the right to grant authorisations yourself if it is still needed after the end date – there is no automatic reminder.
- Stage 10/10 Mandate details: Check that the information is correct. Make corrections if necessary. After this stage, you can no longer make changes to the application.
- Continue to finish the application:
- Answer the question of whether any of the signatories have a guardian.
- Click the button to add yourself as a signatory. If there are any other signatories, add their details. You must include each signatory’s name and date of birth and specify what kind of identification will be used by those with the right to sign who will sign the application by hand.
- After you have added each signatory, lock them with the toggle switch. Select the application’s method of delivery. Add your email address to the contact details and read the instructions for delivering the application.
- Download the application to be signed and print it.
- Sign the application. If there are other signatories, ask them to sign the application as well.
- Send the following documents by post:
- signed authorisation application
- a copy of a trade register extract – if the company is not listed in the Finnish Trade Register – confirmed as valid by the relevant authority
- copies of the signatories’ passports or identity cards confirmed as valid by the relevant authority
- other required attachments.
- After the right to grant authorisations has been registered and the application is accepted, you will receive an email from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV). You can check the estimated processing time of the application on the Suomi.fi page Authorisation with an application
- After the authorisation application has been accepted, you can grant yourself or someone else a mandate for transactions in the Suomi.fi e-Authorizations service.
4. Grant a mandate for transactions to the party that will take care of the company’s matters
After you have received a message from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV) informing you that the right to grant a mandate has been registered, you can manage the company’s mandates and authorise other parties in the Suomi.fi e-Authorizations service. You can grant the mandate for transactions concerning the company’s tax matters to yourself. You can also grant the mandate for transactions to another person with a Finnish personal ID or a UID. You can also grant the mandate for transactions to an accounting firm.
- Use the Finnish Authenticator application to log in to the Suomi.fi e-Authorizations service (opens in a new tab)
- Select role Act on behalf of a company or organisation. Then select the company on behalf of which you are granting authorisations.
- Select Go to Suomi.fi e-Authorizations.
- Select Grant mandates.
- Select mandate for transactions as the authorisation type.
- Enter the details of the assignee, i.e. the party being authorised to take care of the matters in question, such as yourself, another individual, or an accounting firm.
- Assignor is the company that authorises a certain person or another company to act on the company’s behalf.
- Assignee is the person or company authorised to act on the other company’s behalf.
- Select the Suomi.fi authorisation for the managing of tax affairs (mandate themes) concerning which you have received the right to grant authorisations.
- Select the start and end date of the authorisation. Note that you will have to remember to renew the authorisation yourself if it is still needed after the end date – there is no automatic reminder. An authorisation granted to a foreign assignee can be valid for up to 3 years.
- Confirm the authorisation.
5. Use e-services for tax matters
The assignee authorised to represent the company can use the Tax Administration’s MyTax e-service on the benefit’s behalf by selecting “Act on behalf of a company” after logging in to the e-service. Once you have the Finnish Authenticator app and a Suomi.fi authorisation, you can log in to MyTax to manage the company’s tax matters.
Go to MyTax
Information on MyTax
