Support for Sole Traders During the Coronavirus Epidemic, Application Opens Week 16

On April 8, 2020, the Finnish Government outlined that a total of 250 million euros will be allocated for supporting sole traders through municipalities. The aid for sole traders will be distributed by municipalities, and application for the aid will open week 16.

The aid for sole traders consists of a one-time payment of 2,000 euros for a sole trader’s notional costs arising from business operations, such as the costs of facilities and equipment acquired for business purposes as well as accounting and other operating expenditure. In granting the one-time payment, a salary collected personally by the sole trader is not considered a cost arising from business operations. Thus, the aid is not considered income received from the company by the sole trader, and as such does not affect their right to unemployment security https://tem.fi/en/questions-and-answers-on-entrepreneurs-right-to-social-security

The one-time payment may be granted for costs incurred since March 16, 2020. Applications must be submitted by August 30, 2020 at the latest. As the aid is provided as a notional sum, the recipient is not obligated to provide receipts for the incurred costs during the application process or later.

Application for the support for sole traders opens week 16
Application for the support for sole traders is arranged in cooperation with the municipalities of Järvenpää, Karkkila, Kerava, Nurmijärvi, Pornainen, Sipoo, and Tuusula. The applications are submitted to the enterprise’s domicile registered in the Business Information System. When the time comes, sole traders may submit their applications electronically. A link to the application form and application instructions will be made available on each municipality’s website.

 We will provide more information on the support available to sole traders and the exact starting date for the application on the Keuke website.

TO WHOM CAN THE AID BE GRANTED?

Sole trader refers to a full-time entrepreneur operating in Finland, who engages in economic activity on their own and has no paid or laid off employees at the time of application. Receiving the aid requires the business operation to be the sole trader's main occupation. Full-time sole trader refers to an entrepreneur who has acquired entrepreneur’s pension insurance (YEL insurance number) or can demonstrate that their income as an entrepreneur or invoicing amounts to at least 20,000 euros annually.

 If the company has been operating less than 6 months, the entrepreneur must demonstrate that the produced revenue stream would have resulted in invoicing amounting to 20,000 euros over a 12-month period had it continued. If the sole trader has more than one company in which they work alone, the aid is granted to the company that is the entrepreneur’s main occupation.

HOW CAN I AS A SOLE TRADER PREPARE FOR APPLYING FOR THE AID?

• Verify the registered domicile of your company so that you can submit your application to the correct municipality when the time comes.
• Receiving the aid requires that the sole trader can be considered to fulfill the conditions for profitable operation. The conditions for profitable operation will be considered to have been fulfilled if the operation was profitable according to the 2019 financial statements or advance tax declaration. You can prepare for this by obtaining the documents that must accompany the application:
  • either financial statements from 2019/the latest financial statements OR tax return from 2019/the latest tax return
  • If your business operation began after December 31, 2019, you will need to provide some other reliable account (duplicate accounts and bank statement)
  • If the sole trader has tax debt, they must have a repayment plan approved by the Tax Administration.
  • Further information regarding other appendices to the application will be provided separately