Fixed costs

According to section 4, subsection 1, paragraph 4 of the Act on fixed-term cost support to companies (508/2020), the support on costs is determined by the fixed costs incurred during the support period (fixed expenses of the support period) as reported by the company. According to page 14 of the government proposal 91/2020 to the Parliament, a company may be granted support for those fixed costs itemised in the application that were incurred between 1 April and 31 May 2020. These fixed costs include rental costs and other costs on property in company’s own use, equipment and item rentals and license and access right fees. From the point of view of reimbursement, it is therefore essential that the fixed cost is included in one of the categories specified in the Act. If necessary, the company must also separate the part of fixed costs belonging to the support period (1 April to 31 May 2020).

The following list contains types of fixed costs that may be included in the fixed costs for the support period as referred to in the Act. The list is not exhaustive, but some examples are listed below.

Rental expenses and other expenses on property in company’s own use:

For example:
  • Rental expenses related to the company’s property/premises (such as property rent)
  • Maintenance charge
  • HPAC and electrical fees
  • Insurance premiums (property-related)
  • Road maintenance fees
  • Fixed cleaning costs
  • Waste management
  • Fixed security costs
  • Property tax
  • Interest expenses on a loan related to real estate (cost of the loan that, unlike a loan repayment, cannot be e.g. renegotiated or postponed)

Equipment and item rentals:

For example:
  • Leased electronics (phones, computers, etc.)
  • Leased vehicles

Access right fees:

For example:
  • Franchising fees
  • Taxi hire company fees
  • Royalty payments

License fees:

For example:
  • Licence fee for software used by the company (e.g. accounting software)
  • Monthly fixed costs for servers purchased from an external service provider by the company

The following cost types cannot be considered to be fixed costs for the support period as referred to in the Act:

For example:
  • Personnel rental costs
  • Owner’s withdrawals
  • One-off procurements and investments
  • Depreciation on own property
  • Loan repayments (including capital expenditure charge)
  • Accounting and other administrative expenses
  • Telephone/Internet plan
  • Fuel costs
  • Instalment payments (e.g. car), vehicle tax, car insurance
  • Health care
  • Membership payments