Vero asks tax-relief applicants for competition details by activity

Public-benefit associations and foundations applying for partial or complete income-tax relief must now describe the competitive situation separately for each business activity under Vero's application guidance.Vero They must already itemise their business activities and each activity's turnover. The added prompts ask what the competitive situation is, whether similar operators work nearby, who the competitors are and whether the organisation plans to expand.

For relief on property income, the application must report the proportion used for public purposes or public-benefit purposes.Vero Previously, this application instruction referred only to public-benefit use. The property must be identified by its property identifier or by its name and address.

Vero's new questions distinguish the organisation's own public-benefit use, letting to other public-benefit organisations, letting for public use such as to the state, a municipality or a parish, and letting to private individuals or businesses. Applicants are also prompted to identify long-term tenants and describe the floor area and purpose of the part let on a long-term basis.

The underlying property test remains predominant public or public-benefit use. Vero describes this as more than half of the property, normally assessed by floor area or time of use.Vero Section 1 of the relief Act allows exemption also for income attributable to other use when that predominant-use condition is met. Vero's detailed guidance confirms that property-income relief is not conditional on an absence of competitive disadvantage.

For business-income relief, the competition test is more precise than the overview's general no-disadvantage wording. Section 2 requires consideration of whether relief for a particular business activity would cause competing businesses harm that is more than minor.Finlex Vero's detailed guidance uses that threshold too. The assessment also considers the social benefit of the organisation's work and how far its income and assets support socially important public-benefit activity. Vero specifies that income and assets must mainly be used for public-benefit activity.

The application should explain the purpose, delivery and extent of that activity. Vero now asks applicants to describe national-organisation membership or otherwise extensive, established and permanent activity nationally. Section 3, however, states the alternatives as activity covering the whole country or activity that is otherwise extensive, established and permanent. An organisation's collective activity may be considered for an individual member where justified by the organisation's nature and the member's position; national operation by every local association is therefore not automatically required.

Attach the organisation's rules. Its current budget and activity plan must also accompany the application. Apply in MyTax. A paper application is available if electronic filing is not possible. Section 6 sets a four-month application period after the end of the tax year concerned.Finlex Relief can cover at most five tax years at a time and the decision is chargeable. It concerns income tax, not VAT or property tax, and does not itself determine public-benefit status or whether income is taxable; those questions are decided in the income-tax assessment.

The legal framework is Laki eräiden yleishyödyllisten yhteisöjen veronhuojennuksista (680/1976), particularly sections 1–4 and 6.