Starting a business in Finland
Company audit in Finland. Legal obligations
Audit is a part of the company's control system and is performed by an auditor. There is no obligation to appoint an auditor if in the last financial year and one year before it only one or none of the following three conditions is met:
- the balance sheet total over 100 000 EUR
- turnover of more than 200 000 EUR
- the number of employees exceeds three (3)
Accounting Act 1336/1997 (in English), Kirjanpitolaki 30.12.1997/1336 (in Finnish) and Auditing Act /Tilintarkastuslaki (1141/2015) (in English); (in Finnish)
It is no need to appoint an auditor for private traders or business operators. Audit shall be carried out in foundations (säätiö) and associations (yhdistys) as well as in limited companies (osakeyhtiö OY), limited partnerships (kommandiittiyhtiö KY), general partnerships (avoin yhtiö AY) and cooperatives (osuuskunta OSK) that go beyond the rules mentioned above.
The auditor is elected by the highest decision-making authority in the company, for example, an annual general meeting of shareholders in a limited liability company. As an auditor must be appointed HT or KHT auditor, who has been approved and certified in accordance with the Auditing Act 1141/2015. Associations can approve an auditor that is not authorized as well as housing cooperative can take a resident (owner - resident) to carry out an audit in the company.
The audit report states whether the financial statement and the annual report (if any) provide the correct and sufficient information and whether the annual report and financial statements are inconsistent.
However, if the articles of associations, articles of partnerships or regulations of the small companies mentioned above provide for audit, the auditor must be selected or company regulations have to be changed.
The titles for authorized /approved auditors in Finland are HT and KHT.
Taloushallintoliitto website (in Finnish).