Financial statements for limited companies
This instruction tells you which financial statements documents a limited liability company must submit to the Trade Register, and what needs considering when you file the Tax return form 6B for your business.
Accounting periods closing in 2011 or 2012
The Tax Administration delivers the financial statements and notes of organisations using Tax return form 6B to the Trade Register. You do not need to submit anything directly to the Trade Register. Tax return form 6B will be complemented with a new Form 63 (Financial statements information to the Tax Administration and the Trade Register).
- Further information in Finnish: Press release of the Tax Administration and Forms 6B and 63 on the Tax Administration’s website
- Further information in Swedish: Press release of the Tax Administration and Forms 6B and 63 on the Tax Administration’s website
For accounting periods closing in 2010 or previously, see separate instruction.
Financial statements documents you must submit
1. All companies
- Profit and loss account and a balance sheet
- Account notes
- Report of operations
- Audit report, if an audit has been carried out
- Notification on the adoption date of the financial statements and on the decision of the General Meeting regarding the profit or loss of the company given by a Board member or the Managing Director
The financial statements and the report of operations must be dated and signed by the Board of Directors and the Managing Director. The financial statements must contain the profit and loss account and the balance sheet for the previous accounting period. The auditor must mention the finished audit in the financial statements, and refer to the audit report in it. In the profit and loss account, the Business ID and official name of the company must be stated.
The report of operations must contain the information required in the Limited Liability Companies Act. A separate report of operations is required if the shares which a company has issued are subject to public trading or the like in a stock exchange under the legislation of a state within the European Economic Area, or the company’s operation is considered extensive (see Limited Liability Companies Act, Chapter 8, sections 3 and 5, and Accounting Act, Chapter 3, sections 1, 7 and 9). For other companies, the corresponding information can be submitted in the account notes instead of a report of operations.
2. Additional information required from some companies
- Consolidated financial statements, if they are included in the company’s statement of accounts, and a consolidated audit report and a consolidated cash flow statement, if any.
- Cash flow statement (for public limited companies and limited companies with extensive operation, see Limited Liability Companies Act, Chapter 8, section 3, and Accounting Act, Chapter 3, sections 1 and 9).
Deadline for notifications
The tax return must be filed within four months from the end of the accounting period. For further instructions, go to the Tax Administration’s website. In addition to information filed with the tax return, other additional information must be submitted to the Trade Register within two months from the adoption of the profit and loss account and the balance sheet.
Processing of financial statements information at the Trade Register
Documents submitted directly to the Tax Administration are automatically registered at the Trade Register. When you submit the financial statements documents directly to the Trade Register, we check that all the required documents have been included before registration. We do not check them as to their content, so they are registered as filed. The registration of the financial statements is added to the company’s Trade Register entries and the documents become publicly available in pdf format. We do not send any Trade Register extract to you once the registration is complete.
After registration, financial statements documents are public by law and they can be ordered from service providers or viewed through various services. We also disclose many documents to businesses and authorities. Businesses pick certain key figures from the electronic documents for processing into different services for their clients.
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