Function of Tax Account: Transactions

The Tax Administration will keep track of all debit and credit transactions for each accounting day in chronological order.  The recording date for debit obligations is the due date, but the recording date for credit transactions is the value date. Records show in Tax Account after a few days.

Typical debit transactions (indicative of obligations to pay tax):

• Taxpayer-declared taxes and any changes to them (taxpayer has submitted Periodic Tax Return)
• Taxes debited at the Tax Administration’s initiative
• Late-payment interests.

Typical credit transactions (indicative of adding to the money in the account):

• Incoming payments (taxpayer has made payments using his reference number)
• Tax refunds of tax account taxes
• Interest accrued on any money in credit (surplus in Tax Account).

The system will always compute current balance after a new transaction.

The Tax Administration uses the money to cover taxpayer’s taxes, the oldest one first. If the due date is the same for several different taxes, the first tax type to be covered will be e.g. payroll withholding tax (because such a tax is distributed to several government bodies who are tax recipients).  After the first tax type, the next one will be e.g. social security contribution (because it is paid to only one recipient, Social Insurance Institution – Kela). The last tax type of the same-due-date taxes will be VAT and any other taxes distributable exclusively to the state of Finland. If any late-payment interests have accrued, the system will cover the interest first, and the actual tax amount later.  

Transaction recordings include reference number, block of payments if applicable, bank account number given by taxpayer for purposes of receiving refunds, taxes refunded, and taxes that remain outstanding. Tax Account also shows entries describing future and upcoming transactions.