Annual Obligations of a Finnish Oy in 2026: PRH, Tax, Accounting, Payroll and Financial Statements

1. Think of Oy compliance in three layers

An Oy's obligations cannot be reduced to a single annual return. The first layer is daily and monthly bookkeeping and the flow of documents: every transaction has to have something behind it. The second layer is periodic reporting — VAT, payroll and the incomes register — whose calendar depends on the company's tax period and whether it has employees. The third layer is annual or event-driven work: financial statements, the corporate tax return, general meeting decisions and PRH updates.

The approach that works is building a compliance calendar at the start of the year rather than leaving each task to its last day. There is no single calendar that fits everyone: the tax period, the financial period, the number of employees and which registers the company belongs to differ from company to company, so the calendar has to be derived from your own records.

2. Monthly bookkeeping and document flow

Every sale and expense transaction has to rest on an accounting document. Bank and card movements, sales and purchase invoices, cash, travel, vehicle, representation and staff costs, and payments made to shareholders all have to be explainable and evidenced. A transaction with no document behind it is the hardest item to account for afterwards.

Personal spending made from the company account, and company costs a shareholder paid with their own money, have to be classified correctly. Transfers with no explanation accumulate on the shareholder's current account and cause problems both in a tax audit and when the financial statements are approved.

3. VAT reporting: obligations can continue even with no activity

If the company is entered in the VAT register, it has to file VAT returns according to its own tax period. Having no sales or purchases in the period does not by itself remove the duty to file while the registration stands; a nil return is filed instead.

Whether the VAT period is monthly, quarterly or annual follows from the company's registrations and its turnover. Which rate a particular sale falls under, and the VAT on which costs may be deducted, is assessed transaction by transaction; for costs in mixed use the deductible share is calculated separately.

4. Regular vs casual employer

According to Vero, a company counts as a regular employer — and enters the Employer Register (työnantajarekisteri) — where it regularly pays wages to at least two employees, where alongside one permanent employee it also pays short-term or temporary staff regularly, or where it pays wages to at least six people at the same time even if the work is short-term.

A company with only one permanent employee, or between one and five short-term employees, can in certain situations be a casual employer. But casual status does not remove the duty to report the wages paid to the incomes register; it changes only the duty to be in the register and to file the monthly separate report.

5. Incomes Register: wages and employer's separate report

Wage payments are as a rule reported to the incomes register with an earnings payment report (palkkatietoilmoitus) within five calendar days of the payment date. The report is filed separately for each income earner and each payment; the period runs from the day of payment, not from the day the payslip was prepared.

The employer's separate report covers the employer's health-insurance contribution and related data. A regular employer submits it every month, including 'No wages payable' when no wages were paid. The deadline is the fifth calendar day of the following month.

6. Financial statements and PRH's eight-month rule

An Oy has to file its financial statements with the Trade Register (kaupparekisteri) within eight months of the end of the financial period. That duty does not fall away by itself depending on whether the company is active or dormant.

For financial periods ending on or after 1 December 2024, PRH charges a late fee: EUR 150 when the statements are up to two months late, EUR 300 at two to four months and EUR 600 beyond that or when nothing is filed, doubled when two or more consecutive periods are missing. The corporate tax return is due within four months of the end of the last month of the financial period. So that the statements can be prepared on time, year-end bank reconciliations, schedules of receivables and payables, inventory, depreciation, payroll and tax calculations and shareholder current accounts should be checked before the close; when these items are only corrected during the close itself, there is not enough time.

7. Keep PRH and beneficial-owner data current

Board, managing director, address, signing rights and other registered details should be updated when they change. Beneficial-owner information should also be updated when ownership or control changes.

PRH can impose a negligence fee (laiminlyöntimaksu) for incomplete or incorrect Ticaret Sicili data and for beneficial owner notifications that were never filed; for a beneficial-owner notification not made by the deadline in PRH's reminder letter the fee is EUR 300. Records therefore have to be tracked not only at incorporation but throughout the company's life.

8. What changes if the company is inactive?

No activity does not mean no obligations. If the company remains VAT-registered or in the Employer Register, zero/no-wage reporting may still be required. Bookkeeping and financial statements continue.

If inactivity will continue, unnecessary tax/employer registrations can be reviewed, but ending an Oy is a separate legal process; simply not using the company does not automatically dissolve it.

9. Annual compliance checklist

Tracking the following items in one place materially reduces compliance risk.