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Suomi.fi identification and authorisations to be implemented in Åland tax border declarations on 2 December 2019 (updated 2.12.2019)

Publication date 14.11.2019 14.00
Press release

Does your company use the Åland tax border declaration service ALA to submit customs declarations? You will get to be among the first of our customers to use Suomi.fi identification and authorisations. Starting 2 December 2019, you can start using the Suomi.fi services yourself or you can authorise your employees or representatives who submit declarations to use the services.

Suomi.fi identification and authorisations will be replacing Katso identification in all of Finnish Customs’ services and in all public administration in Finland. In order to sign in you need a strong personal identification, that is, online banking codes, a mobile certificate or a certificate card. The CEO of a company or another person authorised to sign on behalf of the company also has to provide the persons handling customs transactions with the mandates needed for the transactions.

What is the difference between online banking codes, a mobile certificate and a certificate card?

You get access to online banking codes by signing an agreement with a bank. If you want to use the online banking codes to sign into Customs’ online services, the codes need to be personal.

A mobile certificate is an electronic identifier in the SIM card of your mobile phone. Read more about mobile certificates at mobiilivarmenne.fi.

A certificate card can be an identity card that includes a citizen certificate or an organisation card that includes an organisation certificate. Identity cards are granted by the Police and organisation cards by the Population Register Centre. Read more about certificate cards at the Population Register Centre’s website: Organisations

What do I need to do in practice?

If you are the CEO or another person authorised to sign on behalf of the company and you submit ALA declarations yourself:

  • Authorisation is not needed. Your position grants you the right to submit ALA declarations.

If you are the CEO or another person authorised to sign on behalf of the company, but you do not submit the declarations yourself:

  • Grant the employees who handle your company’s ALA declarations the mandates to submit declarations or
  • grant another employee at your company the right to authorise other employees to submit declarations.

If you are the CEO or another person authorised to sign on behalf of the company, and your company uses a representative (an accounting firm or a forwarding agency) for declaring goods :

  • Grant your representative the mandate to declare goods using ALA. In turn, the representative needs to authorise their employees to submit declarations.

How do you grant mandates?

Grant mandates using Suomi.fi e-Authorizations. The mandate “Declaration of value-added tax on imports from and to the Åland Islands” is used for declaring goods in ALA. You can find more detailed instructions on the tulli.fi website under Identification.

Who cannot as of yet use Suomi.fi identification and authorisations?

Suomi.fi identification and authorisations cannot be used as of yet by

  • estates, business partnerships, deemed partnerships, joint administrations and public organisations
  • associations and foundations
  • foreign persons or companies
  • companies in which two or more persons jointly have the authority to sign on behalf of the company.

If you belong to one of these groups, you can start using Suomi.fi identification and authorisations in the course of the year 2020 as and when new features are implemented. You will be informed of these features separately once we have a more detailed schedule.

Schedule for Suomi.fi identification and authorisations at Customs

It addition to ALA, Suomi.fi identification and authorisations is used in the following three electronic EU services:

  • the Customs Decisions System (CDS) where authorisations involving more than one member state and effective throughout the entire territory of the EU can be applied for;
  • the eBTI service, where binding tariff information decisions can be searched and browsed;
  • the eAEO service, where the status of authorised economic operator can be applied for.

In other corporate services, Suomi.fi identification and authorisations will be implemented during early 2020.

Keep track of the implementation of Suomi.fi identification and authorisations in Customs’ services:
Subscribe to the newsletters on customs clearance or Intrastat
Keep track of Customs’ guidance on identification:  https://tulli.fi/en/e-services/services/identification

More information available on the Suomi.fi website:

This is how e-identification works: https://www.suomi.fi/instructions-and-support/information-on-eidentification/this-is-how-eidentification-works
How are mandates granted and requested? https://www.suomi.fi/instructions-and-support/information-on-eauthorizations
User instructions by page (in Finnish)

Customer support for companies and organisations:
Suomi.fi identification and authorisation: Population Register Centre, organisaatiopalvelut(at)vrk.fi, tel. 0295 535 115 (10–15)
Customs transactions: Customs Information Service, tel. 0295 5202

(This customer notification has been updated on 2 December 2019: The date for the implementation of Suomi.fi identification and authorisations in Åland tax border declarations has been corrected to 2 December 2019.)

Customer notice Uudistuvan lainsäädännön ja tulli-ilmoittamisen tiedotteet