PRH has imposed the 300-euro fee on companies missing owner data

Every limited-liability company and cooperative must notify its beneficial-owner data to the trade registerPRH, and the notification is free of charge. Listed companies and mutual real-estate companies are outside the duty. For companies that have ignored the reminders, the Patent and Registration Office (PRH) has now imposed the 300-euro negligence feePRH (600 euros for public limited-liability companies and European companies)PRH, and warns that a company which still does not file after the fee will be removed from the registerPRH.

The procedure runs in fixed stages. A company that has failed to file first receives a warning letter giving it four weeks to submit the data.PRH If it does not file, PRH imposes the negligence fee. Filing within the deadline ends the matter: no fee is imposed and the company leaves the procedure. After the fee PRH sends a second warning letter, this time giving three weeksPRH, and the letter is sent under threat of removal from the register or an order into liquidationPRH. If the company still does not file, PRH publishes the warning in the Official Gazette (Virallinen lehti), registers it in the company's trade-register data and sends the company a register extract; the company then has 3.5 months to file the free notificationPRH. Owners and creditors are invited to comment on the removal or possible liquidation. A company that files within any deadline exits the procedure and is not removedPRH, and any register entry about missing owner data is deleted.

The final stage is removal or liquidation. A company that misses the last deadline is removed from the register or ordered into liquidation.PRH Liquidation on application requires evidence that the assets cover the liquidation costs or that someone else answers for them. A removed company may not carry on business, though it may apply for restoration to the register. The decision and appeal instructions go to the address in the Business Information System (YTJ).

PRH has also changed how it reaches companies. Warning letters go by post to the YTJ address — or, where the company has no address, to a registered officer — and now also by email wherever an email address is entered in the trade-register data. Because scam messages circulate, PRH stresses that its emails come from an address ending in @prh.fiPRH. To check whether owner data is on file, search the company by Business ID in the Virre service and open the free trade-register extract, which shows whether the data has been notified; PRH also mails a beneficial-owner extract once a notification is registered, and a company's own extract is available free of charge in the beneficial-owner service. Notifications are filed in the YTJ service, or on paper in exceptional cases such as responsible persons without a Finnish personal identity code.

Unpaid fees are collected by the Legal Register Centre (Oikeusrekisterikeskus, ORK): missed payment by the due date on the payment request leads to enforcement, return to ORK where there is nothing to distrain with possible re-referral, and an insolvent company may face bankruptcy on application. The fee decision targets the company, not its board membersPRH, and no extension for payment is available from PRHPRH. A company with no activity and no plan to continue can consider dissolving instead — but the notification duty persists for as long as the company stays registeredPRH. Legal basis: Kaupparekisterilaki 5 § (notification duty), 24 § (300/600 euro negligence fee) and 28 § (liquidation or removal procedure); Osakeyhtiölaki 20 luku 4–5 §; Osuuskuntalaki 23 luku 4–5 §.