Municipalities to dole out state grants for self-employed

Municipalities will be charged with distributing 2,000-euro grants among the self-employed people whose business has been hurt by the coronavirus outbreak.

The government on Wednesday announced that it would be granting 100 million euros in emergency funding to sole proprietors of businesses, along with a further 150 million euros from the supplementary budget.

Finland’s municipalities will soon begin taking applications for government grants designed to help sole proprietors and freelancers who need financial assistance in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The City of Helsinki has also applied for additional state assistance from the economic affairs and employment ministry to support entrepreneurs.

Applications for the grants and processing of the applications will take place on the city’s e-services portal at asiointi.hel.fi.

Applicants can seek the support from the municipality in which their businesses are registered.

Grants will be awarded to self-employed people and freelancers to help cover business expenses.

Instructions for applying for the one-off payments of 2,000 euros will be published on the City of Helsinki website as soon as the information becomes available.

Who can apply?

Entrepreneurs with a one-person full-time business that is operating exclusively in Finland can apply for the grant, regardless of legal status or means of financing. Sole proprietors are defined as business owners and trade professionals that are not part of a paid workforce, meaning that the definition also extends to freelancers.

Terms and conditions

In order to receive the grant, sole proprietors must be able to show proof of a weakened financial status and a drop in revenue after 31 December due to the coronavirus outbreak. Decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.

The grant cannot be paid to companies that were already experiencing financial difficulties before the pandemic nor can it be paid to businesses with tax liabilities.

The money can be used to cover costs incurred between 1 March and 31 August. The grant can only be awarded once, and applications can be submitted until 30 September.

Sole proprietors can apply for the government grant alongside temporary unemployment benefits that have been extended to the self-employed until 30 June.

If the 2,000-euro government grant is used to cover fixed costs, it will have no effect on the unemployment benefit, but if the grant is used to pay the salary of the sole proprietor or something else equivalent to earned income received as compensation for work, it may affect the amount of unemployment benefits.