Implemented experiments

This page contains all the experiments carried out in the Real-Time Economy project and their results. Find out about the experiments: click a title and read more.

  • Testing digital tax residence certificates of tax residence

    On 19 June 2023, the European Commission launched the FASTER initiative. The goal of the initiative and the proposed FASTER Directive is to improve the accuracy of withholding tax at source on dividends and to make the refunding of taxes paid in excess faster and safer. The FASTER Directive will introduce standardised procedures across the EU on interest and dividend income gained from cross-border investments. This will make the application of tax benefits determined in tax treaties simpler, smoother, and more cost-effective. A reporting system has also been proposed which would reduce the risk of tax fraud and misuse. The overall aim of the FASTER Directive is to remove obstacles on foreign investment, and the new rules are expected to come into force during 2027 – 2029.

    The FASTER initiative also involves a proposal for a European digital certificate of tax residence for confirming an investor’s country of residence for tax purposes. For instance, the digital tax residence certificate could be used to prove that the investor lives in Finland and is entitled to a reduced rate of tax-at-source on dividends in accordance with a tax treaty. The digital tax residence certificate should be an electronically signed PDF file readable by both humans and machines, or an optional attestation of attributes (digital certificate in a structured format) in a European digital identity wallet.

    The Real-Time Economy project’s digital business identity team is currently conducting technical trials in the MiniSuomi innovation ecosystem. Using test data, these trials test how a digital tax residence certificate could be requested from the Tax Administration, transferred to the company’s identity wallet, and forwarded to the bank.

    The results of the trials will be presented to banks, who can comment on whether the results are in line with their processes and needs. In a follow-up trial, tests could focus on systems integration with the MiniSuomi digital platform and be extended to digital identity wallets for individuals.

    Goals

    The goal of the trial is to formulate a solution that would allow banks as well as the tax authorities in the source and target countries to reduce the manual processing of documents. The solution would allow the certificate of tax residence to be shared and certified in real time with the tax authority that issued it. It is easy for the data user to verify integrity and accuracy of the data. In the long term, the goal is to enable access to correct information on income recipients at the time of payment in as many cases as possible, which would reduce the need for submitting and processing applications for refund of tax withheld at source on dividends.

    Implementing the digital certificate of tax residence as an attestation of attributes in a digital wallet would serve the aims of other EU Directives as well as tax collection in general. For example, this solution would streamline the reporting obligations of operators in the platform economy (DAC7), the reporting and automatic information exchange on business transactions conducted with cryptocurrency (DAC8), the removal of international double taxation of income, and the accurate assessment of VAT in the country of sale (VAT In Digital Age, VIDA, One Stop Shop).

    Read more and watch the video: Tax residence certificate simplifies withholding tax procedures – Real time economy (yrityksendigitalous.fi)

    Timing

    24 October 2023 – 31 March 2024

    Further information

    Mikael Linden, mikael.linden(at)gofore.com

  • Permission-based data transfer: requesting tax return data on the customer company

    The pilot project Permission-based data transfer carried out as part of the Real-Time Economy project was based on the project aim of examining permission-based data transfer in situations where data administered by a third party is used to carry out a business process. The pilot project was based on the observations made during the customer insight stage of the Real-Time Economy project, which led to the realisation that the financial sector is a potential user of structured data.

    In line with the vision of the Real-Time Economy project, financial sector actors were identified as having made significant progress in the use of structured data, and they have already automated many of their business processes. Together with our pilot partner, we concluded that the financial position of companies that do not produce financial statements can best be analysed on the basis of their tax return data. Under the current system, the funding provider asks the customer to retrieve the information from MyTax and deliver it to the funding provider.

    In the solution developed in the pilot project, the funding provider is able to obtain the tax return data directly from the Finnish Tax Administration based on the permission granted by the funding provider’s customer company. In the pilot project, the tax return data is transmitted in structured format from the Finnish Tax Administration to the funding provider via an interface if all conditions are met. The aim of the pilot project was to facilitate the real-time funding decision process in which the customer company can receive the funding decision from its funding provider without the delays caused by manual work phases.

    Pilot progress

    After the business area selected for development had been identified, the business process in which the corporate customer authorises the funding provider to request its tax return data from the Finnish Tax Administration was specified. It was determined that the process involves interaction between the three actors and that rules are required to govern the cooperation.

    We identified the following three stages as the key process elements: 1) managing the customer’s authorisation so that the Finnish Tax Administration is able to disclose data it manages to the funding provider, 2) requesting data from the Finnish Tax Administration, and 3) transferring the data to the funding provider. With regard to authorisation, we specified an operating method in which the sharing of data is based on the data permit granted by the party sharing the data. On the basis of this data permit, the Finnish Tax Administration could disclose data to the funding providers that have obtained the data without the company granted the data permit having to submit the authorisation granted by its customer. To test the requesting and delivering of data, we built a technical implementation  in the Finnish Tax Administration’s test environment that can be used in accordance with the terms and conditions specified by the Finnish Tax Administration.

    Observations made during the pilot project

    A total of six financial sector actors took part in the pilot project at its different stages. The conclusion was that the tax return data specified in the project interests financial sector actors. All actors were also generally positive about the operating method specified in the project, which could make data reported to the authorities available for business needs. The assumption in the pilot project is that a similar operating method could also be used in the exchange of information between other authorities and companies and between companies. Up-to-date accounting data was among the information identified as data interesting financial institutions.

    According to the work carried out in the pilot project, the Finnish Tax Administration could transfer data on its customers to third parties under a power of attorney. According to the pilot project findings, there are no obstacles to sharing data on the basis of a data permit granted using special criteria. It was concluded in the pilot that the Finnish Tax Administration and the funding provider would probably have to agree on the management of the authorisation, information requests and on transferring the data. Alternatively, the parties could prepare terms of use that the service user would have to observe. The Finnish Tax Administration should monitor compliance with the agreement and/or the terms of use and, if necessary, intervene if irregularities occur.

    Based on the pilot project, the Finnish Tax Administration and the financial sector actors have the required technological capacity, and the technical cost of introducing the operating method would probably be relatively low. After the pilot, the administrative costs arising from the operating method, and its workability as part of the statutory task of the Finnish Tax Administration would still have to be examined.

  • Piloting digital product passport

    The digital product passport contains information about product features, such as the proportion of recycled materials in the product. The digital product passport is defined in the ecodesign for sustainable products regulation, and you can get it online, for example, using the product’s QR code.

    The digital product passport can be implemented in a number of different ways. The product manufacturer can save the digital product passport in a blockchain, in which it is publicly available as a certified document. The product passport must include verified details of the product manufacturer, and the manufacturer can check the data by, for example, using a digital wallet.

    The digital product passport pilot is carried out by STRGL, a tech studio specialising in the research on decentralised technologies. With its TREE® technology, the product manufacturer can obtain the verified details of the user’s digital identity from the elDAS-compliant business wallet of the MiniSuomi environment.

    In the system implemented in the pilot, the manufacturer’s verified identity is saved in the blockchain as part of the product passport data.

    Time

    The pilot will be carried out between March and May 2024.

    Participants

    Finnish Tax Administration, STRGL

    More information

    Mikael Linden, mikael.linden(at)gofore.com

  • Using standardised accounting transaction data

    The aim of the pilot was to test whether standardised transaction-level accounting data can be used to meet the data content needs of government agencies and other data users. The following use cases were examined in the pilot: income tax, value added tax and statistical reporting, tax audit and auditing of accounts. The aim was also to learn more about the usability and benefits of structured and standardised accounting data.

    The Finnish Tax Administration and Statistics Finland were the government agencies taking part in the pilot. Kirjurituote Oy offered support in the use of the LiikekirjuriTM chart of accounts, and the software house Visma Solutions Oy and the audit firm KPMG Oy Ab also acted as pilot partners.

    XBRL GL specification was used as the file format in the pilot. Standardisation of the data content was based on the Liikekirjuri™ chart of accounts (The website is in Finnish) and other additional monitoring items that can be standardised. The company’s chart of accounts was adapted to the LiikekirjuriTM chart of accounts by Visma Solutions Oy.

    The YD project produced synthetic test material, and the pilot partner provided the real company data in XBRL GL format. At the start of the pilot, discussions were held with the partners and stakeholders on which XBRL GL taxonomy data contents would be used in the pilot. In cooperation with the partners and stakeholders, a code set was also specified for the monitoring items to meet the additional data needs for VAT, income taxation and Statistics Finland.

    Time 

    4/2023–4/2024

    Pilot results:

    • The pilot was successful and the objectives set were achieved.
    • The benefits of structured and standardised accounting data can be maximised when the data is extensively used in companies.
    • XBRL GL data format was found to be workable and it can be recommended.
    • Visma Solutions Oy developed the capability to produce data in XBRL GL format. The capability can be realised at reasonable cost because the XBRL GL data in XML format can be easily converted on the basis of the software data content.
    • The XBRL GL accounting data of the real company used in the pilot was found to meet the needs of government agencies and auditing of accounts.
    • A standardised chart of accounts and a standard data format would bring significant benefits for the tax audit process and auditing of accounts.
    • According to the government agencies participating in the pilot,
      • from the perspective of value added taxation, the data would meet data needs if the reporting cycle were in accordance with VAT requirements,
      • the accounting-based data could be used in the income tax return process,
      • the data would meet a number of statistical needs if the reporting cycle and speed were adequate and the monitoring items usable,
    • producing the specifications required for value added taxation on the basis of standardised monitoring items was a straightforward process and was found practicable, and
    • it seems that the data can also be used for other purposes, such as the transfer of accounting data between business systems and financial administration software.

    The following matters need to be examined further:

    • harmonising accounting data content,
    • making XBRL GL data format extensively used in Finland,
    • ensuring that shared data use will produce more extensive benefits and determining the information needs that the data can replace, and
    • development of standardised posting references and monitoring items.

    Inquiries

    Elina Koskentalo, Arccos Consulting Oy, elina.koskentalo (at) arccos.fi
    Kristiina Häkkinen, Finnish Tax Administration, kristiina.hakkinen (at) vero.fi
    Vilppu Salovaara, Statistics Finland, vilppu.salovaara (at) stat.fi

    Co-creation forums arranged as part the pilot:

  • Data transfer and use of e-invoices

    The purpose of the pilot was to test the technical data transfer of e-invoices from an operator to data users via an interface. The data transfer process was primarily based on existing interface solutions. The test material, which consisted of real e-invoices (Finvoice 3.0), was converted into structured format so that it could be used more effectively in the compilation of statistics and the functioning of data transfer could be tested in transaction-specific reporting (the directive proposed by the European Commission (ViDA DRR)). It was also examined in the pilot whether the State Treasury could act as a data collector and intermediary for such agencies as Statistics Finland or the Finnish Tax Administration in accordance with their right of access to information. Building such data transfer channels is part of the ecosystem work of the Real-Time Economy project.

    The pilot was carried out between February 2023 and April 2024 with the participation of the Finnish Tax Administration, Statistics Finland, State Treasury, Posti Messaging Oy and Tietoevry Finland Oy.

    In the pilot,

    • it was determined that technical data transfer of e-invoices from an operator to the State Treasury via an interface can be implemented as planned
    • the usability of the e-invoice data in official reporting was examined
      • From the perspective of the compilation of statistics, the data content of the invoices should be developed and the details of the goods and services sold contained in the invoices should be in standardised format. The data transfer technology could at least be used in price statistics, and statistics on the products sold and purchased by companies.
      • From the perspective of the Finnish Tax Administration, the pilot provided an opportunity to examine the suitability of e-invoices for transaction-based reporting, especially considering the proposal for transaction-based reporting (ViDA DRR) published by the European Commission. The pilot produced highly valuable information on how currently used e-invoices can be processed and which matters still require joint development efforts.
    • functioning of real business data (data contained in the e-invoices) in the automation of official reporting was examined
      • According to the State Treasury, the invoice data content caused problems even though preparations had been made. As a result, developing the invoice data content has been made part of the roadmap work.
      • Statistics Finland noted that the invoices contain a significant amount of useful information but that, based on the pilot data, the invoices are not yet suited for extensive production of statistics and such features of the invoice data content as product codes, quantity information and local kind-of-activity unit ID should be developed.
      • From the perspective of the Finnish Tax Administration, most of the data could have been used in taxation situations (ViDA DRR). The real business data could be used as a basis for preliminary modelling of the invoice data content and its usability. A preliminary picture of the challenging issues could also be formed.

    The objectives of the pilot were described in the blog Less complex reporting and better statistics with e-invoicing, blog 29 March 2023 (The website is in Finnish).

    Inquiries:

    Pasi Sinervo, Finnish Tax Administration, pasi.sinervo(at)vero.fi
    Maria Eskelinen, Finnish Tax Administration, maria.eskelinen(at)vero.fi
    Vilppu Salovaara, Statistics Finland, vilppu.salovaara(at)stat.fi
    Tomi Rusi, State Treasury, tomi.rusi(at)valtiokonttori.fi

  • Producing financial statements in digital format

    The purpose of the pilot was to examine the ability of the suppliers of financial administration systems to produce digital (structured) financial statements and to transfer the data to the Finnish Trade Register via an interface so that the production of the financial statements could be extensively automated.

    The needs of the users of financial statements, such as information service companies, were also examined.

    Software development went smoothly with reasonable resources and support

    The resources and support needed to develop the software as well as the smoothness of the process of commissioning the system and producing financial statements were examined in the pilot.

    In the pilot, two financial administration software companies, Oscar Software Oy and Admicom Finland Oy, produced the entire content of the financial statements in iXBRL format (inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language) and successfully sent the financial statements to the testing environment of the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH), which maintains the Finnish Trade Register. The data sent to the Finnish Trade Register contained the income statement, balance sheet, notes to the financial statements and other information.

    Both software companies were satisfied with the results:

    • The implementation process was fairly simple, and
    • the amount of resources required was at reasonable levels.
    • The sample material provided a good basis for independent development work,
    • the material was of high quality and sufficient support was provided.

    The current plan is that the actual production use could start already this year.

    Based on the experiences of the companies participating in the pilot, the number of working hours required depends significantly on whether the software already contains the function producing the financial statements. Standardisation of the chart of accounts in the software is the second factor impacting the process. If the structure of the chart of accounts is locked at account group level, it becomes easier to automatically produce the income statement and the balance sheet in structured format. The software companies felt that producing the financial statements and establishing the connection to PRH’s interface required roughly the same number of working hours.

    Significant savings to data users

    As part of the pilot, data users were asked about the processing of financial statements.

    From the users’ perspective, digital financial statements have a number of advantages:

    • The data can be used much more efficiently.
    • Digital financial statements generate significant savings either directly as financial savings or indirectly through automation.
    • The resources used to store data manually can be reallocated to more productive work.
    • The data can be made public more quickly because registration takes less time and the users do not need to process the data.
    • Data quality improves because digital financial statements are more likely to contain the information required by law.

    The notes to the financial statements contain substantial amounts of data needed by the users. The possibility of structuring the notes and the reasonable level of structuring were also examined in the pilot. According to the users interviewed for the project, notes to the financial statements usually include the number of personnel, group structure, leasing liabilities, other operating income and expenses, and dividends.

    Participants

    Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH), Statistics Finland, Finnish Tax Administration, Admicom Finland Oy and Oscar Software Oy.

    Time

    The pilot was carried out between May 2023 and March 2024.

    Inquiries

    Juho Mäkinen, PRH, juho.makinen(at)prh.fi
    Elina Koskentalo, Arccos Consulting Oy, elina.koskentalo(at)arccos.fi

  • Know Your Customer in banking

    Banks carry out a Know Your Customer (KYC) process when a company opens an account or becomes a customer to conduct other transactions. In a pilot carried out as part of the Real-Time Economy project, it was examined how the business digital wallet can make it easier for banks to meet their statutory KYC obligations.

    By law, banks must know their customers, and they also take measures to identify the customer for risk management reasons. When opening a bank account, a company provides the bank with documents on its financial situation, ownership structure and beneficial owners. In a survey carried out in the Real-Time Economy project, banks were asked what information they request and need when starting a customer relationship and there they would like to see improvements.

    Many of the KYC documents are in paper form, and supplying them and processing them in the bank involves manual steps. This creates costs, is highly time-consuming for the personnel, and makes processes more inflexible.

    It was examined in the experiment whether companies could supply the KYC documents as electronic attribute certificates from their elDAS wallets. The experiment was carried out with synthetic data in the MiniSuomi test environment. In the experiment, the Mini-PRH (Finnish Patent and Registration Office) built in MiniSuomi provided the test company with a trade register extract and a beneficial owners extract, and the test company supplied these documents together with a previously acquired tax residence certificate from its wallet to the Mini-Bank operating in MiniSuomi.

    Read the KYC blog and see the video

    The experiment was part of the Real-Time Economy project, in which the aim is to provide a basis for digital business startups and operations and to create a digital identity for companies. The aim is to examine the benefits of an elDAS-compatible business wallet for companies.

    Time

    The experiment was carried out between 1 January and 31 March 2024

    Participants

    Finnish Tax Administration

    Inquiries

    Heini Heinonen, heini.heinonen (at) stat.fi

  • Using the business wallet concept in business

    A joint trial by Norway, Sweden and Finland in the MiniSuomi environment. The test data is used to see what the digital business wallet can accomplish and how it could be used.

    Trial partners

    Brønnøysund Register Centre (NO)
    Swedish Companies Registration Office (SE)
    Real-Time Economy project (FI)
    Ministry of Finance (FI)

    Time

    The time frame is tied to the pilot of the EUDI wallet consortium.

    A proof of concept (PoC) was implemented

    • How a Swedish company can request basic information from a Finnish company and vice versa
    • Where the information is located and who will hand it over
    • Use cases of the activities, demos of the technical solution and presentation of the results
    More about the trial: mikael.afhallstrom(at)vero.fi

  • Offering eReceipts in government agencies

    The task was to compile the requirements for offering eReceipts in accounting units so that eReceipts can be offered, and to test eReceipt relaying in a purchase situation.

    The trial was based on the requirement that the accounting unit send eReceipts only if the customer has signed an eReceipt agreement with an eReceipt operator.

    Participants
    Finnish Patent and Registration Office, CPU, ReceiptHero, Valtori and State Treasury

    Time
    December 2022

    More about the trial: pirjo.ilola(at)valtiokonttori.fi

  • Using the data in eReceipts

    Combining card purchase receipts with card invoices in a purchase invoice system.

    The trial also created a model report for purchase rows on card invoices for which eReceipts had not been received. This makes it easier to validate the card invoice in a purchase invoice system.

    Participants

    Police, Valvira and State Treasury

    Time

    December 2022

    More about the trial: pirjo.ilola(at)valtiokonttori.fi

  • Peppol service metadata publisher (SMP) and Findy trial

    All Peppol users report their data related to the receipt of messages to the service metadata publisher
    service, SMP. This information includes the receiving addresses and supported messages and processes.

    The Peppol SMP and Findy trial managed to demonstrate that SMP can also maintain the address information needed by Findy. In addition, it was verified that the data content of Peppol messages can be used to create data sets (credentials) used by the trust network.

    Participants

    Posti, TietoEvry, OP and the Real-Time Economy project

    Time

    Spring 2021

    More information

    Tapani Turunen, tapani.turunen (a) valtiokonttori.fi

  • One-off e-invoice for consumers

    In addition to pilots carried out in cooperation with banks, Apix Messaging Oy, Isolta Ltd, MobilePay Finland Oy and representatives of the State Treasury also launched pilots with one-time e-invoices intended for consumers in December 2021. The aim was to check that an e-invoice can be sent using Isolta’s invoicing software to a consumer’s MobilePay application and to determine which changes would be required in the invoice transmitting process. Apix acted as the e-invoicing operator in the pilot. Following a successful pilot, the first one-time e-invoices were transmitted to consumers in January 2022.

    Participants

    Apix Messaging Oy, Isolta Oy, Mobilepay Oy and State Treasury

    Time

    January 2022

    More information:

    Tomi Rusi, State Treasury tomi.rusi (a) valtionkonttori.fi

    Read Tomi Rusi’s blog 21 March 2022 on one-off consumer invoicing

  • Experiments on sending data across national borders in the Peppol network

    Between spring 2021 and spring 2022, the State Treasury and the Tax Administration organised three trials on sending a product list, an e-invoice and a procurement message across national borders in the Peppol network.

    Peppol is a network developed by the international OpenPeppol association, through which different actors can transmit electronic business documents to each other. The trials were carried out in cooperation with the Nordic Smart Government and Business (NSG&B) programme. Read the Peppol information package and training material.

    NSG&B: Cross-border testing of Peppol product catalogues

    It was verified that software vendors have the capability to send a Peppol product catalogue to each other across borders. It was verified that the Peppol message can convey information about environmental responsibility (green data).

    Participants: State Treasury, Tax Administration
    Time: spring 2021

    NSG&B: Cross-border testing of Peppol e-invoicing messages

    It was verified that software vendors have the capability to send Peppol e-invoice messages to each other across borders.

    Participants: State Treasury, Tax Administration
    Time: autumn 2021

    NSG&B: Cross-border testing of Peppol procurement messages

    The State Treasury and the Tax Administration participated in a trial that verified that software vendors have the capability to send Peppol procurement messages to each other across borders.

    Participants: State Treasury, Tax Administration
    Time: spring 2022

    All three trials provided valuable information about marking value-added tax with VAT tax category codes and tax exemption reason codes (VATEX reason code) in the documents. These help develop VAT marking in documents and support the preparation of the new VAT directive (VIDA, Vat in the Digital Age).

    More information

    Pirjo Ilola, State Treasury pirjo.ilola (at) valtiokonttori.fi and Pasi Sinervo, Tax Administration pasi.sinervo (at) vero.fi

    Read the news article on NSG&B’s e-invoice and procurement message trial

  • Peppol Training

    The training trial was conducted because the main obstacle to using Peppol procurement messages currently lies in the lack of related expertise. The trial was carried out in collaboration between the State Treasury and TIEKE Ry. They designed and built a training model specifically for trainers and tested it with a target group consisting of educational organizations. Trainers played a central role in enhancing the knowledge of other groups, such as end-users and service providers.

    The aim was to create a concrete practical example of a Peppol training program tailored for trainers. The developed model and lessons learned from the trial are shared openly so that other parties interested in training trainers can benefit from it. This approach promotes and accelerates the development of comprehensive Peppol expertise in Finland.

    Training Model

    The training aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of Peppol, including its background, potential benefits for organizations, Peppol processes, and how the implementation and onboarding should be conducted within organizations.

    The trial officially began in May 2023. An open workshop to prepare for the training was held on June 13, 2023. The pilot training series took place from late October to November. A workshop focused on gathering insights was held on November 15, 2023. The trial concluded as planned at the end of November 2023. The entire training was conducted remotely, allowing participants to ask questions and provide comments during the approximately two-hour sessions. The training covered four main topics: 1) Peppol basics, 2) Processes, 3) Integration, and 4) Peppol implementation and staff training.

    Trainers and end-users are free to utilize the materials from the pilot training. These resources are openly available on the Tieke website and YouTube channel in Finnish.

    Pilot Training 1:

    Pilot Training 2:

    Pilot Training 3:

    Pilot Training 4:

    Simultaneously, a customer understanding project was underway, providing valuable and useful information for the future.

    Change Management

    The Role of Software Companies Operator Requirements Simultaneously, a customer understanding project was underway, providing valuable and useful information for the future.

    Conclusions

    Knowledge about Peppol is still quite limited. Increasing competence in Peppol is essential for widespread adoption of Peppol procurement messages in society. The project team recommends a new trial focused on training end-users to further enhance the training model for trainers.

    For more information about the trial:

    Noora Salonen, Valtiokonttori, noora.salonen@valtiokonttori.fi 

, Päivitetty 19.7.2024 klo 12:57