When you plan to expand your company's operations to Finland, know your mandatory obligations and related financial costs.
Before your company's operations start in Finland:
name a representative for your company in Finland or start a new company in Finland
learn about Finnish taxation
notify the Finnish Occupational Safety and Health Authority of your posted employees in Finland
if your company acts as a subcontractor of another company or leases its employees to another company, submit reports to the other party in the agreement in accordance with the Contractor's Liability Act
Before your employees start work in Finland:
make sure that all your employees have the right to work in Finland
know the tax obligations of your business
find out the country or countries where you should pay your employees’ social insurance premiums
make an employment contract with your posted employees
ensure yours employees' occupational safety and arrange their health care.
Posting employees to Finland
Name a representative for your company in Finland. The representative must be available to your posted employees and the authorities throughout the period posting to Finland. The representative will also ensure that the information related to your company and your employees is available to the authorities. You must give the representative the authority to act on behalf of your company.
You must notify the Finnish Occupational Safety and Health Authority when you post employees to Finland. Notify the authority as soon as you have signed the posting agreement with your employees. You must take the notification before your employees begin to work in Finland as stated in their employment contracts.
If you conduct business in the construction sector, you must submit a request to the Tax Administration for tax numbers for every individual you send to Finland as a “posted employee”. Construction workers cannot carry out work on any Finnish site unless they have been issued a tax number. Read more about tax numbers (the Tax Administration).Opens in a new window.
Citizens of the Nordic countries, the Member States of the European Union, Liechtenstein or Switzerland will never have to apply for a separate residence permit in Finland if they come to the country for work. They can work in Finland for three months without official permits or registration. However, they must have a valid identity card or passport.
If your employees are in Finland for more than three months, they must register their right of residence in Finland.
Your employee can apply for a permit in the Finnish Immigration Service's online service. Make sure that each employee applies for a residence permit personally before entering Finland.
As an employer, you can monitor the status of your employee's residence permit application in the Finnish Immigration Service's online service. You can also submit documents and pay processing fees on behalf of your employee. Ask your employee to show their residence permit card. The residence permit card also shows what kind of work your employee can do and how many hours a week.
If you post your employee to work in Finland for a maximum of two years, apply for an A1 certificate for your employee from the social insurance authority of the country of origin (the country from which the employee is posted).
The certificate indicates which country's social security laws apply to your employee. If the authority in the country of origin grants your employee an A1 certificate, you must pay the employee's social insurance contributions to the country of origin and not to Finland.
If your employee doesn’t have an A1 certificate, pay their social insurance contributions to Finland.
My company is located outside the EU
If you post your employee to Finland to work for a maximum of two years, you don’t have to pay earnings-related pension insurance contributions to Finland.
However, note that you must pay other insurance contributions from the first day of work of your employee.
You must know the provisions of the Act on the Contractor's Obligations and Liability if
your company is a subcontractor of another company, or
hires their employees to another company.
In this case, your contracting partner must ask your company for clarifications and certificates in accordance with the Act on the Contractor's Obligations and Liability when concluding the contract. They help your contractor to ensure that your company has fulfilled its statutory obligations, such as tax payments and employees’ pension insurance.
When the customer requests it, you must provide the following information about your company:
information on whether your company has been entered in the prepayment register, the employer register and the VAT register
an extract from the trade register
report on tax payments
certificate of taking out an employee's pension insurance and payment of pension insurance contributions, or proof that a payment plan for overdue pension insurance contributions has been prepared
report on the applicable collective agreement or central terms and conditions of employment
report on how occupational health care is provided
certificate of taking out insurance under the Employment Accidents and Occupational Diseases Act.