Find your livelihood as an entrepreneur

Inform the employment officials immediately when you are starting new business operations that last over two weeks or work that you bill through an invoicing service. The employment official will send you a clarification request on the matter. Reply to the it carefully.

Based on the information you give, you will primarily continue to be entitled to the unemployment benefit for the first four months of the business operations. 

In four months, you will receive a new clarification request. Once you have responded to it, the employment official will assess whether you will continue to be entitled to receive unemployment benefit. If the employment official evaluates that you are a full-time entrepreneur, you can no longer be paid unemployment benefits.

Apply for a start-up grant from the employment official before starting your business. If the employment services assesses that you fulfil the conditions for receiving support, a start-up grant can be granted to you for one year at the most.

Once the payment of the start-up grant ends, you are a full-time entrepreneur until the end of your business operations. Contact the employment services if you stop your business activities during or at the end of the start-up grant.

You can receive unemployment benefit once your business operations have ended.

Your business operations end when

• you wind up your company’s production-related and financial operations
• you give up your YEL or MYEL insurance.

If you have had a general partnership, limited partnership, limited liability company or co-operative, you must also submit notifications to the tax administration on:

• removing your company from the prepayment register
• removing your company from the employer register
• removing your company from, or discontinuing its inclusion in, the VAT register.

When you have closed down your business

1. start your job search if it is not valid
2. notify that your business has ended and that you are looking for full-time employment
3. respond to the clarification request you received on your business operations.

As a result of entrepreneurial activities lasting less than two weeks you will not lose your eligibility to unemployment benefit. You do not need to notify the employment services about your work.  It is enough to notify your unemployment fund or Kela.