Cost support may be granted also to associations and foundations that have business operations. That means you can apply for cost support for your association or foundation that has economic activities! If the same operator carries out both economic and non-economic (non-profit) activities, it is considered to be eligible for cost support only for its economic activities. Economic activities include all activities in which goods or services are offered on the market also to those who are not members. On the other hand, it is irrelevant from the point of view of State aid and business subsidies whether or not the activities aim to make a profit.
In particular, associations and foundations that carry out both economic and non-economic activities must be able to provide sufficient information in their aid applications, for example through their differentiated accounts, which share of the activities is related to economic activities. The payroll costs and other expenses used as criteria for determining the cost support may also be taken into account only for economic activities, so the organisation or foundation must also present a sufficient account of costs related to the financial activities of the association or foundation in the cost support application.
Associations and foundations are otherwise subject to exactly the same conditions for granting cost support as companies. For more information on the general prerequisites for granting cost support, see here >
In addition, before submitting an application for cost support, you should also familiarise yourself with what the law says about the obstacles to granting cost support, which you can read about here >
It should therefore be noted that the association or foundation must also be entered in the prepayment register in order to be able to receive cost support. However, inclusion in the VAT register is not a prerequisite for granting the support. The association can voluntarily apply to the prepayment and VAT registers even if it does not engage in taxable business activities. In this case, the association’s economic activities are considered, in principle, to be the activities subject to VAT.
The Chair of an association registered in the Finnish Register of Associations may fill in an application for support in the e-services on behalf of the association. In addition to the application, the association must submit additional information showing that the Chair has the right to sign papers on behalf of the association alone or with authorization by the signatory to submit the application (extract from the Register of Associations/rules/extract from minutes/power of attorney).