Business cost support
6th application round of business cost support ended on 31 May at 4.15 pm
6th application round of business cost support ended on 31 May at 4.15 pm
The sixth application round for cost support starts on 26 April at 9 am. The support is applied for from the State Treasury’s e-service. The link to the application and information on applying for support and the conditions will be updated here as the application deadline approaches.
The 5th round of cost support ended on February 18, 2022. You can view the previous round’s information on the 5th application round’s own website>
The processing time for previous rectification claims is currently around 6-7 months.
Business cost support is intended for companies whose turnover has fallen over 25% due to the coronavirus and that have therefore struggled to pay inflexible costs and payroll costs. The need for and amount of support will be assessed on the basis of the sudden decrease in turnover caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of the support is to help companies cope until the Covid-19 pandemic ends.
The support period for the sixth round of business cost support is from 1 December 2021 to 28 February 2022.
Business cost support primarily intended for tourism, restaurant and event companies that have suffered from less restrictive measures. A company whose operations or a significant part of its customer base has been subject to restrictions may also apply for business cost support.
The sixth application round for cost support starts on 26 April at 9.00 and ends on 31 May at 16.15.
The application must be submitted to the State Treasury no later than 31 May 2022 at 4.15 p.m. Please note that this also applies to paper applications, which must be received by the State Treasury on the last application day at 4.15 p.m. A same-day postal stamp is not enough.
The support can be applied for via the State Treasury’s e-services. The e-service guides you in filling in the application. You can also save the application as a draft and continue filling it out later.
You can use the application form to provide all the information needed. In addition, the State Treasury automatically receives information from other authorities, such as the Tax Administration and the Income Register, in order to grant support.
You will receive a case number and a notification in your email upon successful registration. You do not need to contact the State Treasury before or after sending in the application. The State Treasury will request additional information if necessary.
Inquiries do not speed up the processing of the application. The estimated processing time will be updated on the State Treasury’s website.
The amount of the cost support and closure compensation depends on the other expenses during the support period as reported by the company on the application.
Other expenses include the inflexible costs reported by the company in its application, and business costs during the support period.
Inflexible expenses refer to costs that cannot be adjusted in a manner that is equivalent to the volume of operations. The company must therefore bear these costs even if the company has no sales at all, and it is not possible to adjust the inflexible costs accordingly, unlike, for example, expenditure on materials and articles or new investments.
Expenses may also include prepayments made by the company that have proved to be final. Expenses do not include, for example, expenditure on materials and articles, new investments and wage costs that can be reduced.
Examples of inflexible expenses:
The necessary temporary agency workers’ expenses can also be reimbursed. These include expenses that correspond to the actions performed by your own staff, which are necessary to maintain business. This also applies to the costs of maintaining the assets used in the business.
Statutory and other necessary insurances are, for example, insurances related to real estate or vehicles used in business. They must be specified in the additional information section of the application, together with the amounts. Pension and health insurance contributions are taken into account on the application, in the section on wage expenses and YEL insurance. They should therefore not be indicated in the application’s expense table.
Costs that are flexible to some extent can also be reimbursed. In this case, compensation may be paid only for an amount which has not been flexible due to reduced volume of activity.
The costs must be final and cover the support period 1 December 2021 -28 February 2022. After the support period, the costs to be read in favour of the applicant, for example as a discount, cannot be reimbursed. The company is obliged to provide information on actual expenditure incurred during the support period even retrospectively in order to adjust the amount of support.
Wage expenses include data on direct wages paid by the company from the Incomes Register. In addition, the employer’s incidental expenses will be accepted as a percentage of wage expenses. The employer’s incidentals include holiday and sick pay and holiday bonus, as well as the costs of social security and occupational health care.
In the case of business name entrepreneurs and company-employed persons, the wage costs are accepted as the wage income established for the self-employed person’s pension insurance. In addition, the YEL insurance contribution and the health insurance contribution are accepted according to the company’s report.
The wages and wage side costs of self-employed persons of limited liability companies can only be accepted according to the data of the Incomes Register. Separate YEL contributions are therefore not accepted.
According to the bill, support will not be granted in the following situations
Definition of a company in difficulty in the EU Regulation:
A company in difficulty refers to a company in accordance with Article 2(18) of the General Block Exemption Regulation of the EU. According to the definition, a company is in difficulty,
a. if more than half of its share capital has disappeared as a result of accumulated losses (limited liability companies),
b. more than half of its capital as shown in the company accounts has disappeared as a result of accumulated losses (companies where at least some members have unlimited liability for the debt of the company),
c. the company is subject to collective insolvency proceedings,
d. the company has received rescue aid and has not yet reimbursed the loan or terminated the guarantee, or has received restructuring aid and is still subject to a restructuring plan,
e. the company is not an SME, and for the past two years, its book debt to equity ratio has been greater than 7.5 and its EBITDA interest coverage ratio has been below 1.0.
Only section c applies to SMEs that were under 3 years of age on 31 December 2019.
The minimum amount of support is EUR 2,000. The maximum amount of support is EUR 1 million.
The other support already granted will be taken into account in the amount of the business cost support so that the total aid granted under the same temporary State aid rules of the European Commission will not exceed EUR 2,3 million.
Note! When granting cost support, the State Treasury takes into account expenses that correspond max. three times of average monthly turnover of the company during the reference period.e
Cost support can be applied for even if the company has already received other direct supports to mitigate the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Insurance compensation for the same costs, closure compensation and event guarantee granted by the State Treasury are deducted from the cost support.
Cost support is granted under the EU’s framework support programme. All aid granted under the framework support programme is subject to a maximum amount of EUR 2,3 million per company, which must not be exceeded. The ceiling of EUR 2,3 million is calculated taking into account all aid received by an individual company and companies belonging to the same group.
In its application for cost support, the company must notify the State Treasury of all aid granted to the company under the framework aid scheme.
The application period for cost support starts on April 26, 2022 at 9:00 AM. The link to the electronic application will be updated on this page before the start of the application period. However, you can read the instructions for filling in the application in advance and prepare for the application by making sure that you have the information required on the application.
A company may also authorise another individual to represent the company via the Suomi.fi e-Authorizations service. Select the mandate ‘Application for corporate financing’.
The customer service of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency is available to assist companies in the use of Suomi.fi mandates.
You can contact us on: +358 295 53 5115
Note. Representative of the association or foundation: if you have any problems with Suomi.fi authorization, please contact the cost support customer service kustannustuki@valtiokonttori.fi
The chairman of the association, who is entered as a chairman in the Finnish Register of Associations, may fill in the application for Cost Support on behalf of the association in e-service. In addition to the application, an association must send evidence via a supplementary information notice that the chairman has the right to sign for association alone or is authorized by the signatories to send the application (association register / rules / minutes / power of attorney).
In the case of foundations, the application should be sent as a paper application if the authorization rights are not already defined.
The application must be filled in with the company’s basic data, pandemic and normal season turnover data, if they are not available directly from the Tax Administration on the basis of the company’s VAT returns, information on the business name entrepreneur’s annual YEL income, YEL contribution and health insurance contribution, information on inflexible expenses for the support period (1 December 2021 to 28 February 2022 – type and amount of expense, e.g. rent), information on received support related to the coronavirus pandemic, cost support, closure compensation, event guarantee and insurance payments, if they compensate damages during the support period, and information on other aid received under the EU framework aid scheme.
The State Treasury receives some of the necessary information from the Tax Administration, the Incomes Register, Statistics Finland and other authorities that have granted state aid.
The State Treasury strives to make applying as effortless as possible. The application has been tested with a customer panel and has received commendable feedback.
If you are dissatisfied with the decision you have received, you can request a rectification from the State Treasury. Processing a claim for rectification at the State Treasury is free of charge.
Before submitting a claim for rectification
How is the claim for rectification made?
What information should be contained in the claim for rectification?
When do I have to make a claim for rectification?
Processing of the claim for rectification
Appeal to the Administrative Court
Before using the calculator, please read carefully the terms and conditions for granting cost support on our website.
Please note that the calculator is only indicative, as the calculator does not include all the conditions mentioned in the act. The amount indicated by the calculator is not an official decision on cost support, but cost support must be applied for separately in the e-service channel.
Help table to find out your reference period
Reference periods refer to the periods for which the comparison defines the decrease in the company’s turnover between the normal period and the pandemic period. (The granting of cost support is subject to a drop in turnover of more than 25 %).
The normal period and the pandemic period are determined by the company’s VAT reporting period and the date of establishment. When you select your company’s reference period and the date of establishment in the help table, they are shown in the calculator next to respective fields.
Note. The support period, for which cost support is applied for, is the same for all applicants.
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