The num­ber of com­pa­nies obli­ged to re­port on sus­tai­na­bi­li­ty dec­rea­ses – di­gi­tal fi­nancial sta­te­ments are still fi­led with the Fin­nish Tra­de Re­gis­ter

The President of the Republic has approved amendments to the Finnish Accounting Act (555/2026), which will enter into force on 30 June 2026. The amended act will reduce the number of companies obliged to report on sustainability. The companies that are obliged to submit a sustainability report after the amendments have entered into force must file their financial statements in digital structured format with the Finnish Trade Register.

The sustainability report is based on an EU Directive requiring large undertakings to report on their governance and the environmental and social impacts of their operations.

Which companies must file sustainability reports in the future?

In the future, a sustainability report must be drawn up and filed in the following cases:

  • The company’s or group’s turnover is over 450 million euros.
  • The number of personnel is over 1,000.

A company obliged to report on sustainability must file its financial statement documents with the Finnish Trade Register in digital structured format.

The company can also voluntarily commit to drawing up a sustainability report in compliance with the Finnish Accounting Act and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) adopted by the European Commission. In this case, the company must also comply with the requirements concerning digital financial statements.

When will the amendments take effect?

The amendments will apply to financial periods starting on or after 1 July 2026.

Companies may apply the new provisions in financial periods that started on or after 1 January 2026.

If a company has filed its sustainability report for the financial period that started in 2024, the company can decide not to prepare and file a sustainability report as of the financial period that started in 2025 if it is no longer obliged to report on sustainability after the legislative amendment.

What is a sustainability report?

In the future, only reports that have been drawn up in compliance with the Finnish Accounting Act and the ESRS standards adopted by the European Commission can be called sustainability reports. Reports prepared in accordance with other standards or other reports about sustainability can no longer be called sustainability reports.

The sustainability report is assured by an authorised sustainability auditor (KRT auditor) whose assurance report is attached to the sustainability report.

How does the amendment affect digital financial statements?

As a result of the legislative amendment, the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) has revoked two decisions concerning digital financial statements and replaced them with new ones.

According to the first new decision, the markup requirements for digital financial statements will be applied to

  • the companies that were already obliged to file sustainability reports before the amendment and remain obliged to file them
  • the companies that will become obliged to report on sustainability from 1 July 2026.

The decision will not apply to the companies that no are longer obliged to report on sustainability and that have not voluntarily committed to sustainability reporting.

The markup requirements remain unchanged. The company must still use

  • the national SBR taxonomy if the financial statements have been drawn up in accordance with the Financial Accounting Standards (FAS) or
  • the IFRS taxonomy if the financial statements have been drawn up in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Listed companies use the ESEF taxonomy to mark up consolidated figures in consolidated financial statements, but the parent company’s figures must be marked up in compliance with one of the above-mentioned taxonomies.

The purpose of the second new decision is to specify the scope of application of the decision. Otherwise, the content of the decision did not change.

Additional information

The PRH’s new decisions in the reference database of Finnish legislation Finlex in Finnish and Swedish:

Instructions on sustainability reporting at prh.fi, to be updated on 1 July 2026.

Contact us for more information on sustainability reporting and digital financial statements:
digitilinpaatos@prh.fi