The Tax return for self-assessed taxes is used to report value-added taxes and other self-assessed taxes to the tax authority. Tax returns are generated in Notifications > Tax return for self-assessed taxes.
General information on tax return for self-assessed taxes
Tax returns can be sent electronically in Procountor through ApitamoPKI interface. Sending requires an active Incomes Register certificate. If an Incomes Register certificate has already been set to a Procountor environment, the implementation of sending tax returns through ApitamoPKI interface does not require any actions.
When reporting returns electronically, self-assessed tax returns that are filed monthly or quarterly must arrive at the Tax Administration no later than the 12th day of the month in which the tax for the targeted period must by law be declared. If that deadline happens to fall on a Saturday or on a Sunday or holiday, the tax return must arrive the following weekday.
The tax returns sent through Procountor can be viewed in MyTax e-service.
Value added tax is submitted in periods of one, three, or twelve months and other self-assessed taxes in one or three-month periods, depending on the tax period of the company. If any information on the already reported period changes, a replacement return has to be generated and sent.
The same tax return can include both value-added tax information as well as self-assessed taxes, if both have the same due date.
After the deployment of Incomes Register on January 1, 2019, Employer’s contributions are no longer reported on the Tax return for self-assessed taxes. Instead, these are now submitted on the Employer’s separate report, in Notifications > Incomes register > Employer’s separate report. However, this report still creates a receipt in Procountor that has Self-assessed taxes as its receipt type.
Creating the tax return
Before creating tax returns for self-assessed taxes, tax period lengths and payment information needs to be entered in Management > Accounting info > Tax information.
Once tax information have been filled out, tax return for self-assessed taxes can be generated.
Tax returns are created in Notifications > Tax return for self-assessed taxes.
1. The notification year is selected from the drop-down menu in the search criteria. After selecting the year, click Create notification at the top of the page.
2. A new window opens (Phase 1) where you can choose what information you want to include on the report. You have an option to include value-added tax, other self-assessed taxes, or both. After ticking the necessary boxes, click Continue.
3. Clicking Continue opens a window (Phase 2) where the target moth is selected. The program will automatically suggest a target moth, but this can be changed using the Next and Previous buttons. Please note, that notification periods where the due date is on a closed tracking period can't be chosen for the tax return.
Notification period can only be a period within the current year or some previous year. Periods of every year appear for selection on the first day of each year: for example, year 2021 with its periods is available on 1.1.2021. Therefore, the periods of the year 2021 can't be chosen when the previous year hasn't fully passed yet, for example, on 31.12.2020.
When reporting several types of taxes (VAT and other self-assessed taxes) at once, the notification periods are tied in a way that their due dates must always match. After selecting the notification period, click the Continue button.
4. If the value-added taxes have not been selected on the report, the notification will form after this phase. If the value-added taxes have been selected on the notification, the opening window (Phase 3) allows you to choose which VAT summaries are included on the tax return.
VAT summaries from the target period of the notification or an earlier period can be selected on the notification. The VAT summary can be created or updated in phase 3 by selecting option Create/Update VAT summary, if it hasn't been created in Accounting > VAT summary. Finally, click the Continue button to form the notification based on the selections.
When generating the tax return for self-assessed taxes, Procountor automatically retrieves VAT information from VAT summaries dated to the target period.
- If no VAT bearing transactions or salary payments have occurred during the target period, select Period of no VAT activity in the Additional information field.
- The details of other self-assessed taxes and certain other information can be entered manually.
- The sum to be paid is calculated automatically from the input information and is displayed at the bottom of the tax return view in the Payment info section's Total taxes to be paid field.
- If you wish to pay other taxes/penal interest with the tax return for self-assessed taxes, or to make use of compensatory interest/tax rebate, this information can be filled out at the bottom of the tax return view. Payment information will not be forwarded to the tax authorities, only used for calculating the sum to be paid.
5. The tax return is saved by clicking Save. Saved tax returns can be invalidated by clicking Invalidate at the top of the page. The Invalidate button is active if the tax return has not been sent or paid yet.
The entries related to VAT information can be retrieved by clicking on the Search information button, which makes it easier to verify the chain of entries.
Search all Transactions button displays a summary report of the entries included in the figures on the tax return for self-assessed taxes.
Preview button allows you to view the tax return in HTML or PDF format. The payment information for self-assessed taxes' tax returns is shown in the lower part of the preview file.
Self-assessed taxes are transferred to the Tax return for self-assessed taxes according to the used VAT statuses and VAT percentages. More on the VAT processing in Procountor can be found here.
Approving and sending the tax return
When the information on the tax return for self-assessed taxes has been verified to be correct and the return has been saved, it can be approved by clicking on the Approve button. Accounting is generated automatically for the approved tax return. Once the tax return has been approved, it can be paid and sent to the Tax Administration.
The notification is sent straight from Procountor to the Tax Administration using the ApitamoPKI interface. To send the notification, the user must have an active Incomes Register certificate.
The notification is sent by clicking on the Send button.
The Send button is active only on approved notifications that have not been invalidated or already sent. Every tax return notification sent from Procountor is given their own unique archive identification number (generated at Tax Administration's end), and this can be seen in the Archive ID field in the Tax return for self-assessed taxes view.
Clicking on the Send button sends the information to the ilmoitin.fi tax returns service for verification. After this, the Tax Administration’s service confirms either a successful or unsuccessful login. Confirm the return by clicking the Continue button. The identification is valid for 10 minutes after a successful login, and more than one tax return for self-assessed taxes can be sent during this time.
If the return has been sent the Tax Administration outside of the program, for example through the MyTax e-service, the notification can be marked as sent by clicking the Mark as sent button at the top of the page. This marks the tax return as Sent. If the notification has been marked as sent with the Mark as sent button, the Archive ID field on the Tax return for self-assessed taxes front page will be blank. Please note that when the notification has been marked as sent, the procedure can no longer be cancelled.
Paying the tax returns
The tax returns are paid through the Payment view (accessed by clicking Payment at the top of the page), using the Pay button.
The Pay button will be active only if the return has a valid status for payment and the payable sum is greater than zero (this means returns containing only deductible VAT cannot be paid). More information on payments can be found here.
Inspecting the generated tax return
Generated tax returns can be viewed by clicking on the Show report button at the top of Tax returns for self-assessed taxes view. The report contains the following information:
- VAT period of the return.
- VAT summaries included on the tax return.
- Any correcting tax returns generated in Procountor for the same target period after the original notification was generated.
- Sum, the creator, the creating date and due date.
- Status of the return and sending information.
The Notification year drop-down menu allows you to choose the year to be inspected. Clicking the notification number opens up that particular notification.
Making corrections using a new tax return
If information reported on a previously submitted tax return for self-assessed taxes need to be corrected, corrections must be made with a Replacement report. The replacement report is used to report all the information again correctly.
However, if VAT and other self-accessed taxes have been reported on the same return, but only the VAT information needs to be corrected, only VAT information should be included on the new tax return for self-assessed taxes.
Tax returns for self-assessed taxes with the corrections are created, approved, sent and paid in the same way as regular self-assessed taxes' tax returns. The sum for payment in Procountor is only the difference between the previously indicated sum and the sum stated in the new tax return. Accounting entries of the previously created tax return are automatically reversed and new entries are created on the accounting page of the replacement tax return.
If the accounting entries of the original tax return have been edited, accounting entries of the replacement tax return will be made by default postings.
When generating a report for a target period that has already been reported, Procountor shows a notification that a tax return for the period in question has already been sent:
Replacement reports must have a reason for the correction. Choose the reason by ticking the correct box on the report.
- Except for Other Self-assessed taxes
Replacement report's payment receipt
When the replacement report is created, Procountor will create a separate payment receipt for the replacement report.
- Replacement report's payment receipt assumes that the previous report's payment receipt has been paid and the replacement payment receipt takes only the difference to the payment sum.
- If the Replacement report does not have anything to pay, the payment receipt is not created.
- If the Replacement report's payment receipt has something to pay the payment should be done in the Replacement report's payment receipt and the payment that has been transferred to precious report's payment receipt should be paid in that previous payment receipt.
- If the paid sum is smaller than the previous receipts payment sum and the previous payment has not been paid the whole payment should be done in the previous payment receipt.
- Mark the difference between the original report's payable amount and the new report's payable amount as Paid elsewhere.
- The open payable amount on the receipt is now the amount of the new report. Pay this amount in a normal manner.
- The replacement report will have no payable amount and it cannot be queued for payment.
Procedure for correcting a slight error
Tax Administration has determined a separate process for for correcting slight errors in tax return for self-assessed taxes. This means that slighter errors don't need to be corrected on the original notification period, but corrections can instead be included on the tax return of the tax period following the period during which the error was detected.
According to Tax Administration, a slight error does not exceed 500 euros per tax period and has little or no economic impact.
If necessary, please contact Tax Administration for more information.
In Procountor, a slight error in the VAT details can be corrected by making a new VAT summary, which will then be included in the tax return of self-assessed taxes for the following (or later) month. For example, a new VAT summary for January could be included in February's tax return for self-assessed taxes.
Note! When several VAT summaries (which are going to be reported on subsequent Tax returns for self-assessed taxed as a slight error correction) are created for the same month, it is recommended to send all Tax returns for self-assessed taxes related to these VAT summaries in a logical and chronological order, starting from the oldest VAT summary and Tax return. It is also recommended to avoid invalidating the earlier created VAT summaries and Tax returns for self-assessed taxes, if there also exists an already sent Tax return for self-assessed taxes which includes a VAT summary for the same month (that is included in the sent Tax return as a slight error correction).
For other self-assessed taxes, correcting information must be filled in manually on a new, replacement Tax return for self-assessed taxes report.
Changing the VAT period during a calendar year
The most important thing with changing the VAT period during a calendar year is to verify the possibility of the change during a calendar year from the Tax Administration. The VAT period can't be changed from a shorter period to a longer period during a calendar year in Procountor. However, a change from a longer period to a shorter period during a calendar year can be made within certain conditions.
Changing the VAT period from a shorter period to a longer period
It is not possible to change the VAT period from a shorter period to a longer period during a calendar year in Procountor. If monthly tax returns for self-assessed taxes have already been sent from Procountor, the information included in VAT summaries can't be transferred to the tax returns correctly after the period change. A simplified example of a monthly and quarterly tax period is presented below:
- For example, if monthly tax returns for self-assessed taxes have been created for a period of January to June, the period numbers of these tax returns are 1/20XX, 2/20XX, 3/20XX, 4/20XX, 5/20XX and 6/20XX (the information seen in VAT information column of the Tax return for self-assessed taxes view).
- If the VAT period was changed to a quarterly period in this kind of situation from July onwards, the remaining tax return VAT period numbers for the rest of the year would be 3/20XX and 4/20XX (because the period numbers of a quarterly period are always 1/20XX, 2/20XX, 3/20XX and 4/20XX).
- Now, when monthly tax returns have already been made for period numbers 3/20XX and 4/20XX, the corresponding period numbers for the last two quarters of the year can't be created anymore.
Based on the explanation above: the changing of the VAT period from a shorter period to a longer period has to be made always at the turn of the year.
Changing the VAT period from a longer period to a shorter period
If the VAT period has to be changed from a longer period to a shorter period during a calendar year, the change can be made within certain conditions:
- For example, if quarterly tax returns for self-assessed taxes have been created for the first two quarters of the year, the period numbers of these tax returns are 1/20XX and 2/20XX (the information seen in VAT information column of the Tax return for self-assessed taxes view).
- If the VAT period is changed to a monthly period in this kind of situation from July onwards, the remaining tax return VAT period numbers for the rest of the year will be 7/20XX, 8/20XX, 9/20XX, 10/20XX, 11/20XX and 12/20XX.
- Because no tax returns have been made for period numbers 7-12/20XX earlier, the monthly tax returns can be made from July onwards.
If the VAT period is changed from a longer period to a shorter period, it is essential to make sure that only relevant VAT summaries have been created for every month. In the previous example, VAT summaries for January-June have been created with the tax returns of the two first quarters of the year. When the VAT period is later changed to quarterly period between June and July, the creation of VAT summaries continues normally from July onwards. However, it should be noted that in this kind of situation, it would be possible to create a monthly tax return for, for example, to period 3/20XX (that is March with a monthly VAT period). Because the VAT information of March has, however, already been included to the tax return of the first quarter of the year with period number 1/20XX (and March's VAT summary therefore exists), no monthly VAT summaries and tax returns should be created for March (or any other month within January-June) anymore.