Sole entrepreneur support for coronavirus-related reasons

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Sole entrepreneurs can apply for financing of EUR 2,000 to support the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten municipalities in North Karelia have agreed that sole entrepreneurs can apply for support centrally through a single service on the Business Joensuu website. The actual grant decision and possible payment will be made from the sole entrepreneur's municipality.

This website contains important questions and answers for sole entrepreneurs from the municipalities of Heinävesi, Ilomantsi, Joensuu, Kitee, Liperi, Nurmes, Outokumpu, Polvijärvi, Rääkkylä and Tohmajärvi.

The grant may be paid for costs incurred between 16 March 2020 and 31 August 2020. The support can be applied for until 30 September 2020.

How much support is a sole entrepreneur entitled to receive during coronavirus situation and what can it be used for?

The aid to the sole entrepreneur is a lump sum of EUR 2,000 for the costs of running the sole entrepreneur’s business. These include, for example, the cost of premises and equipment acquired for business operations, as well as accounting and office expenses. The salary raised by the entrepreneur him/herself is not included in the costs, but the aid can be used for all other costs.

Who can apply for support through the Business Joensuu website?

A sole entrepreneur whose company is domiciled in one of the following municipalities of North Karelia according to the YTJ register can apply for support using the electronic form below:

Heinävesi
Ilomantsi
Joensuu
Kitee
Liperi
Nurmes
Outokumpu
Polvijärvi
Rääkkylä
Tohmajärvi

Applications will only be accepted through this electronic system. The application cannot be submitted directly to the above-mentioned municipalities. The support is decided upon and remitted by your municipality.

Fill out the application

The application form asks for the following information

Basic information of the applicant
Description of operation
De minimis aid previously received by the applicant during the current year and the previous two tax years
Business stabilisation plan (how the entrepreneur intends to use the grant he or she has received)

The annexes to be submitted to the application are:

Financial statements 2019 / latest financial statements or tax return 2019 / latest tax return
Copies of accounts and / or statements of account to verify how sales and costs have developed in 2020
* NEW for applicants that have filled in the application after 16 April 2020 * Certificate of tax liability (tax debt certificate) and, if the company has a tax debt, a plan for the payment of the tax debt approved by the Tax Administration. How to request a tax debt certificate in MyTax.

When applying, the entrepreneur must certify that the information submitted is correct. If the entrepreneur does the accounting him/herself, the information does not have to be certified by an accountant, but the entrepreneur must certify that it is correct.

The application is signed electronically. To insert your signature and finalise your application, you will need online banking codes / mobile certificates.*

Fill out the application carefully. If you are unsure about any of the points, call our Business Service line at +358 (0) 10 419 8011 weekdays from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm before signing. An incomplete application will be rejected.

A copy of your application will be sent to the email address provided.

Frequently asked questions

What are the criteria for qualifying for the aid funding? How are they evaluated?

The grant is conditional on the sole entrepreneur’s financial situation and turnover deteriorating as a result of the coronavirus epidemic after 16 March 2020 and that the sole entrepreneur’s company is considered to meet the conditions of a profitable business.

The financial situation is interpreted to have deteriorated if the company’s sales revenue has fallen by more than 30 percent while expenses have remained at nearly their normal level. Current income is compared to the company’s 2019 financial statements.

Prerequisites for profitable operations are estimated if the business operations have been profitable based on the company’s 2019 financial statements or tax return.

If the business has started after 31 December 2019, another reliable statement (a copy of the accounts and a statement of account) must be submitted. A sole entrepreneur must not be in an ongoing state of financial difficulty. If a sole entrepreneur has tax debt, he or she must have a plan approved by the Tax Administration to pay the tax debt. A tax debt plan must be set up before you apply.

Who can receive support?

The support is available to a full-time self-employed entrepreneur operating in Finland who does not have a salaried workforce. Full-time entrepreneurship means that the entrepreneur is on the YEL register or that the applicant can present a minimum of EUR 20,000 in entrepreneurial income or invoicing. Approval for support does not depend on the legal form and method of financing the activity. The applicant must not have any income other than entrepreneurial income, such as salary income from employment. Updated on 30 April 2020: pension income does not affect the grant and is not an obstacle to the granting of support if other conditions are met.

For which type of company can the aid funding be granted?

Sole entrepreneur support does not depend on the legal form of the support and the means by which it is financed. It can therefore be granted to all forms of business in which a sole entrepreneur can operate, i.e. private trader or business names, limited partnerships or joint stock companies.

The grant can also be approved for so-called for light entrepreneurs who are self-employed and entrepreneurial without setting up a business. A freelance entrepreneur can also receive support when the freelance entrepreneur works as a self-employed person, with a business name (self-employed or a trader), a partnership (public limited company, limited partnership), a limited company or a cooperative.

Is a person considered a sole entrepreneur if he or she has made all his/her employees redundant?

A sole entrepreneur is a self-employed person who has no paid labor force. Self-employment is considered according to the applicant’s situation at the time of application. If an entrepreneur employs 1-5 people in addition to him/herself but has laid off his/her employees, he or she is not a sole proprietor. If an entrepreneur has dismissed his or her employee and at the time of the application does not employ anyone other than him/herself, he or she is considered to be a sole proprietor.

What if there is more than one company owner, but I’m actually the only one that works and is insured under YEL?

Full-time sole entrepreneurs can apply for support, regardless of how the company is financed. Owners cannot apply for self-employment support if they are not full-time sole entrepreneurs.

How is the support granted if the sole entrepreneur has several companies?

The sole entrepreneur grant is awarded on an entrepreneur-by-entrepreneur basis. If a sole entrepreneur has several enterprises in which he is the sole employee, the grant is awarded to the enterprise in which the entrepreneur works full-time.

Can a sole entrepreneur apply for and receive both the support sought from the municipality and the unemployment benefit set up for coronavirus relief? How do the subsidies affect each other?

An entrepreneur can apply for both sole entrepreneur support and unemployment benefits. They are mutually exclusive, i.e., being granted one does not affect the probability of being granted the other or the amount granted.

Can a sole entrepreneur receive sole entrepreneur support from several companies?

Cannot be obtained because a sole entrepreneur cannot be a full-time entrepreneur in more than one company.

Can a part-time sole entrepreneur receive sole entrepreneur support?

No. Part-time entrepreneurs are not eligible because full-time entrepreneurship is a primary condition of eligibility for support.

Which sectors are covered by the aid funding? Does it apply to farmers?

Funding cannot be granted to agricultural, fishery or forestry companies or for the processing of agricultural products.

Source: TEM 8.4.2020 (in Finnish)