We are a non-profit association and we are concluding an agreement on subcontracting. Does the Act on the Contractor’s Obligations and Liability when Work is Contracted Out apply to us as a contractor?
The Act on the Contractor’s Obligations and Liability when Work is Contracted Out also applies to a non-profit association as a contractor, if the association has a permanent place of business for engaging in trade or employs at least one employee. A contractor may be a business required by law to submit a notification on starting business operations to the Trade Register:
- general partnership company
- limited partnership company
- limited company (also a housing company or a real estate company)
- co-operative
- private trader who is engaged in business activities requiring licence or approval (section 3 of the law on the right to conduct business indicates these activities) or who has a permanent place of business for conducting such business, such as a separate office space from their dwelling, or who employs another person than their spouse or the entrepreneur’s child or grandchild who is a minor or otherwise under guardianship
- mutual insurance company
- savings bank
- mortgage corporation
- non-profit association or foundation, if it has a permanent place of business for engaging in trade or employs at least one employee
- pool schemes
- state-owned undertaking
- right-of-occupancy corporation
- foreign trader who is establishing a branch in Finland
- a European financial association of common interests and an association of common interests registered elsewhere who are establishing an office in Finland
- a European company and a European Cooperative Society.
An equivalent foreign company is also a contractor.
The central government, local authorities, joint municipal authorities, the Province of Åland, a local authority or joint municipal authority in Åland, a parish, a parish union, any other religious community and any other legal person governed by public law may also be a contractor.
Self-employed persons engaged in farming/fishing or households are not considered to be contractors for the purposes of the Act on the Contractor’s Obligations and Liability when Work is Contracted Out.