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This guidance is for both individual and corporate taxpayers.
You can request an advance ruling on a tax matter from the Tax Administration:
In the case of value added taxation, you can also request written guidance. Written guidance is free of charge.
If your application for advance ruling concerns income taxes, submit the application before the due date of the tax return. Even if the Tax Administration has granted you an extension for filing your tax return, you must submit your application for advance ruling by the original due date.
If your application concerns other than income taxes, request an advance ruling before you must file or pay the tax or before you must withhold tax.
An advance ruling on gift tax can be issued only if the gift has not yet been given. An advance ruling on inheritance tax cannot be requested until after the person leaving the inheritance has died. Further, it must be requested before the assessment of inheritance tax.
Submit the application in MyTax if possible. In MyTax, you can also follow how the processing of your application progresses.
If you cannot submit the application in MyTax:
Submit a free-form written application. You can find more detailed instructions on the application’s content on this page.
Keep the document simple, avoid special formatting. Save the file preferably as a text file in doc or docx format. Avoid files containing documents scanned in image format. If needed, you can also save the file in any of the following formats: pdf. rtf, jpeg, jpg, tiff and png. The file cannot be more than 30 megabytes (MB).
Send the completed file to the person responsible for submitting it in MyTax.
In addition to filing the attachment, the taxpayer must also enter the following information in MyTax:
You can submit the application in MyTax if you have been granted a Suomi.fi authorisation for handling tax matters of a person or company.
If you do not have a Suomi.fi authorisation, you can submit an application for advance ruling on paper. Do as follows:
File an application in MyTax. Please describe in detail the tax or business related matter on which you are requesting an advance ruling. The application must contain all the relevant information and clarifications with any attachments needed. If the subject of your application is how a matter related to a contract or another document is interpreted in taxation, attach a copy of the document.
Read more: what information must the application include
If you cannot submit the application in MyTax or if the application includes inside information, make a free-form written application. Attach a separate cover page to the application: Cover page for advance ruling, special permit or guidance application (7300e).
Note! The application can be made in Finnish or Swedish. The application cannot be made in English.
The Tax Administration will process the application as soon as possible after receiving all the clarifications and documents needed. If you include all the necessary clarifications in your application, it will speed up the processing.
If necessary, you can supplement the application later. The Tax Administration may also ask you to supplement the application.
During the processing, the applicant can cancel the application in writing. In that case, the Tax Administration will issue a written decision on the cancellation. The decision is subject to a processing fee.
You can follow the processing of your application for advance ruling in MyTax: Go to the Tax matters tab, select Status of returns and requests and then View the processing status. You can also check the general estimated processing times
When we have processed your application, we will send you a written decision.
The decision is sent to the address you have indicated in the application, or to your or your company’s address that you have given to the Tax Administration earlier. You can also find the decision in MyTax.
You will receive an invoice for the advance ruling separately. The invoice will not be visible in MyTax. See the price list for advance rulings (available in Finnish and Swedish).
After receiving the decision, you must still separately request that the Tax Administration should comply with the advance ruling issued to you. There are no format requirements: you can write the request on your tax return, for example, or attach the advance ruling to your tax return.
If the advance ruling concerns excise taxation, the ruling will be applied without a separate request.
Note the decision’s period of validity.
An advance ruling on income tax is issued for a fixed period. The maximum period of validity is up until the end of the calendar year following the year when the decision was issued.
If the advance ruling concerns other than income taxes, the period of validity may be different.
If the advance ruling concerns reimbursement of expenses or valuation of fringe benefits, the decision is always for the current year.
All decisions issued in response to a request for an advance ruling are subject to a charge. You may be asked to pay a fee relating to the decision itself or relating to its processing.
The fees to pay will vary by reference to the characteristics of the rulings. In general, any advance ruling the Tax Administration issues to an applicant is always subject to a charge. Factors like page quantity or amount of documentation involved do not determine the size of a fee. The meaning of ‘advance ruling’ is the following: a binding decision on how the Tax Administration will resolve a specific tax matter as presented in the form of a question on a taxpayer-submitted application letter.
If more than one advance ruling is issued in response to your application, each of them is subject to a fee as stated on the price list. If you submit an application for an advance ruling that concerns several applicants, those applicants’ tax assessments will be considered one by one, as if every one of them had requested distinct rulings, and fees will be charged accordingly.
We recommend that you prepare the questions covered by your application with great care. The way you choose the questions to ask, and the way your questions are formulated, will have an impact on the size of the total fee. For more information on advance rulings that concern one tax-related arrangement and simultaneously several applicants, see section Advance rulings on a tax-related arrangement shared by two or more persons below.
Instead of a fee related to the decision (called ‘päätösmaksu’), the Tax Administration will charge a processing fee, when
Read more about the charges for the Tax Administration’s services (available in Finnish and Swedish)
In some cases, corporate entities can contact the Tax Administration for a pre-emptive discussion instead of submitting an application for advance ruling. Read more about the situations where a pre-emptive discussion is recommended.
Huomio osio alkaa
Example 1:
The parents of a child operate an agricultural farm. They made plans to invoke the tax rules on exempted transfer of property to the next generation, to have their child become the owner-operator of the farm in the future.
Both parents pose the question whether the planned transfer would qualify for the exemption. The application letter additionally contains a question concerning the amount of the exemption. This question is asked by the child.
The Tax Administration will hand down advance rulings on income taxes to both parents as follows:
2 × €800 = €1600
In addition, the Tax Administration will issue another advance ruling and a calculation of the exemptible amount in euros. This ruling concerns gift taxation, and it is addressed to the child:
€2300
The total fee for the above will be €3900
Please note: In this example, it would be recommendable for the two parents to submit just one application. In the same way, it would be recommendable for the child to simply ask whether or not the exemptibility of gift taxes can be applicable to the transfer of the farm. The Tax Administration would only hand down one ruling with regard to income taxes — €800, and another ruling on gift taxes — also €800. The total fee would remain at €1600.
Example 2:
A married couple is making plans to leave Finland. They submit an application for an advance ruling on non-residency. The Tax Administration will issue two rulings, one for each spouse, against a full charge.
2 × €800 = €1600
Please note: In this example, it would be a good idea for the married couple to submit just one application.
Example 3:
Two shareholders in limited-liability companies are natural persons, and they submit an application for an advance ruling concerning a share exchange. The application letter contains a question – from the receiving company’s perspective – concerning the acquisition cost of the shares to be received. This question is related to income taxes. The letter also contains a transfer-tax question enquiring about the amount of transfer tax to be paid.
The answers to both questions of the receiving company will depend on the calculation method to determine the acquisition cost of the shares.
For the natural persons, the Tax Administration will issue two rulings, one for each. These rulings concern income taxation. Because the topic is share exchange, the Tax Administration will refer to the higher end of the scale of fees for income-tax rulings.
2 × €2300 = €4600
The Tax Administration will issue an advance ruling to the limited-liability company in response to the question of acquisition cost evaluation. This ruling concerns income taxation.
€2300
The Tax Administration will issue another advance ruling to the limited-liability company in response to the question about the amount of transfer tax. Because the applicant is other than a natural person, an estate of a decedent, a benefit under joint administration or a business partnership, the Tax Administration will refer to the higher end of the scale of fees for transfer-tax rulings.
€2300
The total for all the fees is €9,200
Please note: In this example, the persons submitting the application should perhaps consider whether it is worthwhile for both of them to request an advance ruling. Another matter to think through is whether their company will really need the rulings connected to evaluations, as one of the rulings concerns income taxation, and the other ruling concerns transfer taxation. On the other hand, when the Tax Administration hands down an advance ruling on a certain category of taxes to a company, the content of that ruling will not necessarily affect tax assessments for other categories of taxes.
If only one of the natural persons submitted an application for an advance ruling concerning the planned share exchange, and correspondingly, if the company submitted an application concerning evaluation only from an income-tax standpoint, the total fee would be 2 × €2,300 = €4,600.
Example 4:
The Tax Administration received an application for advance ruling with the following questions:
The Tax Administration will issue 2 advance rulings to the applicant. The answer to the applicant’s third question depends on the answers given to questions 1 and 2. When a company de-merges or when two or more companies merge into one other, it is possible to apply the provisions of the Act on the taxation of business income governing mergers and demergers, or alternatively, it is possible to apply section 52h that prevents tax evasion.
The applicant will be charged 2 × €2300 = €4600
Huomio osio päättyy
You can request an advance ruling on how the act on car tax (Autoverolaki 777/2020) is applied in the taxation of your vehicle. You can request an advance ruling on matters such as:
In the application, make a specific question about car tax and give an account of the vehicle that the question concerns. The Tax Administration does not issue advance rulings on queries of a general nature.
If you are requesting an advance ruling on the taxable value of your vehicle, state the following:
If you are requesting an advance ruling on the amount of car tax, also state the following:
An advance ruling is in force for a limited period of time and no longer than up until the end of the calendar year following the year when the decision was issued. However, an advance ruling on the taxable value or amount of car tax is in force for no more than 3 months.
The Tax Administration must comply with a legally valid advance ruling if the party who requested the ruling so requires. The actual circumstances must match the situation described in the application.
If a car tax return has already been filed on the vehicle, no advance ruling will be issued.
An advance ruling on gift tax can be requested either by the donor or by the gift recipient.
However, the gift recipient cannot request an advance ruling on whether they must pay tax on capital gain. Such a ruling may be requested only by the donor.
Make a specific question about gift tax in the application. Also give clarifications needed to resolve the matter. Attach a draft of the deed of gift and other relevant documents.
A specific question is not a question about the fair market value of the assets, for example. However, if the value of the assets is relevant to taxation:
If you are requesting an advance ruling regarding the transfer of assets to the next generation:
Read more
You can request an advance ruling on how a certain action would affect inheritance tax. Examples of such actions include renunciation of inheritance or will, partition, and distribution of inheritance. However, you cannot request an advance ruling on the amount of inheritance tax.
An advance ruling can be requested by a party to the estate, a beneficiary of a special will, and a surviving spouse. A request cannot be made until after the person leaving an inheritance has died. However, it must be made before the Tax Administration finishes the assessment of inheritance tax.
Add copies of existing documents, such as
You can request an advance ruling on the excise duty payable on a product or on the taxability of business activities. An advance ruling can be issued only to an applicant that files and pays excise duties. In other words, no advance ruling will be issued to a product’s end user that has paid the excise duty included in the product’s purchase price and is then requesting a refund. You can also request an advance ruling on excise taxation when the tax assessment is carried out in line with the provisions relating to customs. In that case, however, the application must be addressed to Customs.
In the application, give a comprehensive account of the facts relating to your tax question. The Tax Administration will resolve the matter on the basis of the legislation in force and of any other legal sources.
Enter an exact question in the application, i.e. the tax matter on which you are requesting an advance ruling. The question must concern the applicant's own taxation, and the ruling must have a direct effect on the tax imposed on the applicant. Example of a specific question:
Describe the business reorganisation plan in the application. The account you give must include the following information:
At least the following attachments are usually needed to resolve the matter, so make sure you add them to your application:
You are expected to provide the Tax Administration with a comprehensive account of the facts relating to your question. When resolving the matter in advance, we will refer to the legislation in force and to other legal sources.
Your application letter should contain an exact individualised question to be answered, i.e. the fiscal or tax-related question you are submitting the application for. The question must concern the applicant's own taxes, and the ruling’s impact should concern the taxes directly. The following examples illustrate individualised questions:
Please include a written account on the research and development activity being pursued. Each one of the R&D projects should be separately described. The written account is expected to cover at least the following items:
Your application should contain a project plan concerning the R&D activity. Please include it as an enclosed document if available.
Read more: The combined deduction for research and development
When advance rulings concerning transfer taxes are sought, the parties entitled to submit an application are those who would be in the roles of the taxpayer of the transfer tax or a person liable for payment of the transfer tax, if the assets or property were to be transferred as planned.
For advance rulings on transfer taxation, the question on your application letter should be whether an obligation to pay transfer tax will arise, or alternatively, your letter can enquire about the transfer-tax amount. Please take account of the above when you formulate your application letter. The above rule means that you cannot ask, for example, whether the Tax Administration would approve of a certain euro value for the corporate shares to be transferred to another owner.
Your application letter or the enclosed documents must contain a full description of the transfer of assets or property that you are planning. This means that you should enclose a draft version of the transfer agreement or other documentation explaining the terms and conditions of the transfer. If your application concerns a question that would require knowledge of the fair market value of the property to be transferred before an advance ruling could be prepared, you would have to furnish the Tax Administration with a written account concerning the market value, based on a proper reasoning. If you apply for an advance ruling to ask about the transfer tax that would become payable if the corporate arrangement you are planning is made, please familiarise yourself with the section Tax effects of business reorganisation to find a list of content requirements and documents to enclose.
The Tax Administration may refrain from issuing a requested advance ruling, if the application letter and enclosed documents are insufficient as a description of the planned transfer. Likewise, the Tax Administration may also refrain from issuing a requested advance ruling if, for other relevant reasons, the application letter and documents fail to give the Tax Administration enough information. Yet another example of a situation where the Tax Administration would refrain from issuing a ruling is when the applicant had described relevant facts and information in a controversial way, or when the planned transfer had only been described in general terms, without an identification of the parties or without details on the asset or property.
It is possible that the Tax Administration would charge considerable total fees directly related to the decision (päätösmaksut) when the issued advance ruling responds to multiple questions covering several categories of taxes or several applicants, although the applicant had planned just one transfer of property. As a result, it is recommended for applicants to carefully think through the questions to include in their application. For example, to think about whether an advance ruling on both income tax and transfer tax has any real usefulness.
Attention begins.
Attention ends