Finland’s near-universal Inline XBRL mandate passes Parliament
Finland’s plan to have almost every limited company file its accounts in iXBRL has now passed in the Parliament of Finland and now just awaits final assent and publication. Bill HE 96/2026 passed with amendments on 13 October. The bill changes the Accounting Act, section 11 of the Trade Register Act and the Auditing Act so that financial statements, management reports, auditor’s reports and auditors’ notes reach the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) as structured data.
The obligation would cover limited companies, along with general and limited partnerships whose unlimited partners are themselves limited companies. Companies required to appoint an auditor would start with financial years beginning on or after 1 July 2027; for a company whose financial year follows the calendar year, that means its 2028 accounts, filed in 2029. Everyone else in scope follows a year later. To be clear, cooperatives, housing companies, foundations, associations, credit institutions, investment firms and pension firms, as well as insurance undertakings, sit outside the new rules for now.
Statements would be prepared in XHTML, with the taxonomy items specified in an annual PRH decision to be tagged in iXBRL. The deadline for that decision will be the end of June of the year it applies to; the bill had originally proposed a year earlier. Small and micro companies will get a free PRH converter that turns a spreadsheet template into iXBRL for filing through the Finnish Business Information System (YTJ), and it is likely this will be expanded to newly started businesses too, since the size tests that define small companies need two closed financial years.
Finland already requires structured iXBRL accounts from companies within the scope of sustainability reporting, and listed groups file under the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF). When we reported on the government’s consultation, the ambition was structured data for every set of accounts on the trade register. If enacted, the laws will enter into force on 1 July 2027.
Finland is significantly extending the reach and value of structured reporting. Lenders, suppliers, and customers, as well as statisticians and tax officials will be able to draw on comparable figures for nearly the whole corporate population, something a PDF archive could never offer. Congratulations to XBRL Europe CEO Elina Koskentalo and all at XBRL Finland who have been instrumental in supporting the progress of the Bill.
Read more here (in Finnish), and find the PRH’s English-language guidance on digital financial statements here.
