Concepts and definitions
- Business ID (Identity code)
Business ID, or business and organisation code, is an identifying code given by authorities to all legal units.
The Business ID consists of seven numbers, a hyphen and a control number.
- Enterprise
An enterprise is a unit with decision-making autonomy, which produces goods and/or services to be sold on the market.
Enterprise corresponds to legal unit, if the legal unit is not part of an enterprise group. Otherwise, the enterprise is an enterprise group or part of one.
The definition of enterprise is based on the EU regulation concerning statistical units (EEC) 696/93.
- Legal unit
A legal unit is a corporation, or an organisation registered for conducting business. A legal unit is identified with a Business ID.
Legal units are, for example, limited companies, private practitioners of trade, co-operative societies, state-owned companies and foundations.
- Natural person
A natural person engages in entrepreneurial activity under his/her own name or under a registered trading name.
This group includes own-account workers, sole proprietors, most agricultural and forestry entrepreneurs, as well as practitioners of trade.
Official Statistics of Finland (OSF):
Structural business and financial statement statistics [e-publication].
ISSN=2342-6233. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 19.4.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/yrti/kas_en.html