How to open a business in Finland

Starting a business in Finland will allow you to realize your plans to promote business in the European Union. You will also have the opportunity to realize your entrepreneurial endeavors in a new, stable market, to get acquainted with the rules of doing business in a foreign territory. To start a business in Finland, take care of all legal and financial aspects.

You will need

• - copy of the passport;

• - company representative in Finland;

• - applications to the Main Patent and Registration Office.

Instruction manual

1

Determine what type of activity you want to conduct in Finland. There are five different types of enterprises. This is a person of a free profession (earning privately); personal partnerships; joint stock companies; cooperatives and associations. Independent earnings means activity for only one person, is not corporate. Partnership also does not apply to corporate business. Here, each person involved in the business bears personal responsibility, all the actions of partners are inextricably linked with each other. The corporation belongs to a separate unit that has some tax breaks.

2

Please note that in Finland, a social project is being implemented that helps beginner businessmen. It is called Enterprise Finland. Please call 010-19-46-82 on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and you will be answered questions regarding the opening of your business in Finland.

3

Contact the Trade Register of the Main Patent and Registration Office in Finland (www.vero.fi). There you can check how unique you have chosen for the name of your company. If such a name already exists, here you can choose another free of charge yourself using special computers with a complete database of existing names. Also in this institution, a citizen who is not a resident of one of the countries of the European Union must obtain special permission to conduct activities.

4

The package of documents depends on the form you have chosen for starting a business in Finland. For individual entrepreneurs you need to obtain a special permit in the above department for conducting business activities. Provide an application, a copy of the alien’s passport, as well as a representative office, i.e. a person who permanently resides in Finland and has the right to receive various agendas related to doing business. Also, for conducting business, a registration notice is required (provided, again, to the office), filled out in a special form in two copies in Finnish and Swedish.

5

To register a partnership’s business, it must have at least two founders. Send a request to the General Directorate of Patents and Registration to obtain permission for the partnership. In the paper indicate the name of the applicant, nationality, place of establishment of the applicant, contact details. Also attach a copy of your passport. Please note that partnership registration notices are issued in duplicate in Finnish and Swedish.

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