Termination of appointment

Duty to notify Trade Register

Organs of businesses and organisations that are recorded in the Trade Register have a statutory duty to notify the Trade Register of changes in their registered details without delay. For example, you must notify the Trade Register when persons entered in the Trade Register – Board members, Managing Directors, persons authorised to represent the business, holders of a procuration, agents, and partners – resign, or their appointment is terminated. In general partnerships and limited partnerships, general partners are responsible for the notification, whereas in limited liability companies and co-operatives, the duty falls to the ordinary Board members and the Managing Director.

When to notify of your own resignation or terminated appointment

If the organ of a business or an organisation that is recorded in the Trade Register abdicates their responsibility, some information may not be updated, including removing the details of persons who no longer act in the given positions. In such a case, it is to your advantage to report yourself your resignation or terminated appointment to the Trade Register.

It is very important to notify the Trade Register if you have left your position in a general partnership or a limited partnership. The partner’s liability for the partnership’s debts and other obligations may continue until the resignation has been entered into the Trade Register, and has been published.

In some cases, persons entered in the Trade Register may have the duty to report their own resignation to the relevant authorities. Under section 10(2) of the Auditing Act, the auditor shall file his or her resignation for registration within two weeks after his or her notification to the corporation or foundation. For consequences of a failure to do so, see section 30 of the Trade Register Act, and section 19(1) of the Business Information Act. However, if the business has notified the Trade Register of the resignation of its auditor, there is no need for the auditor to report their resignation once again. If there is another reason for the termination of the auditor’s appointment, such as that the auditor is dismissed, the business is obliged to report this to the Trade Register. Auditors themselves also have the right – but are not obliged – to notify of their resignation.

Neither your resignation nor the termination of your appointment are legally recognised by notifying he Trade Register; to do that you must comply with the legal provisions that regulate the appointment or position concerned. Furthermore, the actual resignation date is not entered into the Trade Register, but only the registration date for the notification.

Filing of notification

Everyone whose details exist in the Trade Register can file an amendment notification on their resignation or the termination of their appointment.

The form includes a field “Additional information” where you can state as follows: “I, John Smith, have resigned from the company’s Board of the Directors.”

Please note that when you report a terminated appointment, you cannot report any other changes on the same form, not even a new address. We recommend that you also fill in the field “Agent (Person or company providing the Trade Register with further information)”, because we send a Trade Register extract concerning the register entry to the contact person. If this field is empty, we will send the register extract to the business’s address.

The form must be signed by the resigned person, or by a person he or she authorises. If you report more than one person’s resignation or terminated appointment on the same form, it must be signed by each of the resigned persons, or by persons they authorise.

Forms

Private traders: Y6
General partnerships and limited partnerships: Y5
Other organisations and foundations: Y4

Click here for forms.

Enclosures

Normally, you do not need to send any enclosures. If the form is signed under a power of attorney, this must be enclosed. If an authorised person signs the notification, the original general power of attorney or a certified copy of a special power of attorney must be enclosed.

Handling fee

The handling fee is 85 euros. It covers cases where you notify on the same form of terminated appointments of several responsible persons in one and the same business.

If you have resigned from a number of positions in several businesses, and notify of them all at the same time, the handling fee is 85 euros per each business. In this case, you must fill in a separate form for each business. The handling fee must be paid in advance. (For further information, see our payment instructions.)

Please note: The notification on your resignation is free of charge if you have fallen victim to registration offence (for example based on a court decision or pre-trial investigation material where the suspect confesses the registration offence to the police).