Support for a political party or party association

Under the Act on Political Parties, a political party is a registered association entered in the Party Register, which is maintained by the Ministry of Justice. The political parties entered in the Party Register can be viewed on the vaalit.fi website of the Ministry of JusticeAvautuu uuteen välilehteen.Under the Act on Political Parties, a party association is an association that belongs to a political party or its member association according to the statutes of the political party or member association.

However, contributions that have not been assessed to pose a risk of ties being formed are not considered as support for a political party or a party association. Such contributions are described under “Contributions not regarded as support”.

Non-monetary support

In addition to actual monetary support, support is also considered to refer to other monetary-measurable support, which has, however, been provided in non-monetary format. Non-monetary support must be valued at its monetary value and reported in an up-to-date disclosure and, if necessary, in an election funding disclosure. Such support may include, for example, free advertising space provided by newspapers or free services provided by companies in their own sectors, such as professional design of a website or the production of other campaign material, such as posters and leaflets.

Conventional quantity discounts or conventional free services provided by newspapers and other companies are generally not considered to constitute support and do not have to be included in the disclosures.

Contributions given during the election campaign

Only the contributions received during the campaign period are considered as election campaign contributions. Contributions received at other times are considered as other support given to a political party or a party association. This division must be taken into account when a political party or a party association prepares a disclosure of election campaign expenses and funding and the parties paying its advertisements.

Only contributions received during the campaign period are regarded as election campaign contributions. Contributions received at other times are considered as other support given to a political party or a party association. This division must be taken into account when a political party or a party association prepares a disclosure of election campaign costs and funding and the payer of its advertisements.

The campaign period begins six months before the election day and ends two weeks after the election day.

The donor must be specified if the contribution received is at least EUR 2,000 (as from 1 July 2025). Support received before 1 July 2025 must be reported if the value of the support amounts to at least EUR 1,500.

Contributions not regarded as financial support

Contributions that have not been assessed to pose a risk of ties being formed are not regarded as support for a political party or a party association. It is not necessary to submit up-to-date disclosures of such contributions. The following contributions are not regarded as support:

• ordinary voluntary work and ordinary free services
• fair-value contributions that relate to ordinary organisational activities or asset management
• contributions that a political party and its party associations receive from each other
• revenue from permanent market-based business activities
• revenue from investment activities
• government grants and other subsidies based on legislation or the state budget or municipal budget
• contributions collected by political parties or party associations from elected municipal or wellbeing services county officials (as from 1 July 2025)
• contributions from EU institutions and comparable international organisations that are based on their budget (as from 1 July 2025)
• MP’s contributions (the NAOF has recommended that they should be disclosed until the end of 2023)
• pass-through items between a political party, party associations and candidates (the NAOF has recommended that they should be disclosed until the end of 2023).

‍These contributions are described in more detail in the following.

Ordinary voluntary work and ordinary free services

Ordinary voluntary work is work is done freely without pay. Only a natural person can do voluntary work. Free services provided by businesses, such as hanging banners, are always regarded as support.

Fair-value contributions that relate to the ordinary organisational activities or asset management of a political party or a party association

Support is not considered to refer to such contributions received from outsiders that are connected to the everyday management of an association’s activities and finances, such as an association’s tasks as an employer and possessor of fixed assets. Such contributions could include, for example, the fees received by the party for the sale of its own office premises or office movables. However, the requirement is that the contribution is according to the fair value.

Ordinary contributions such as insurance and damage compensation are also regarded as contributions related to asset management.

However, contributions related to raising election campaign funds fall within the scope of support that must be disclosed. Revenue from the sale of tickets to an election seminar, for example, are not contributions that relate to ordinary organisational activities.

Contributions that a political party and its party associations receive from each other

The contributions received by a political party and a party association from each other are transfers within the political party community and thus do not involve a risk of ties to third parties. Such transfers could be, for example, payments of party subsidies or membership fees between a political party and party associations.

Income from permanent business activities carried out by a political party or a party association

Permanent business activities mean activities that are of a continuous nature and that are carried out on market terms on the general market. Such business activities may be, for example, the sale of services by a political party's own accounting company.

Income from permanent business is not regarded as financial support so that political parties and party associations would not be put at a disadvantage when carrying out market-based business.

Business activities of a temporary nature differ from the business activities of a permanent nature referred to in this paragraph. For instance, business activities connected with election campaign funding are usually not permanent. Even if raising funds for an election campaign were of a continuous nature and carried out on the general market, it is usually not on market terms. Giving funds to an election campaign is also a typical means of supporting a political party. For example, revenues from the sale of tickets to seminars organised to fund a campaign or revenues from the sale of paintings are therefore not income from permanent business activities as referred to here and should be disclosed as support.

Revenue from investment activities carried out by a political party or a party association

Revenue from investment activities carried out by a political party or a party association include dividends and interest on deposits, as well as rental income from properties owned by a political party.

Government grants and other subsidies based on legislation or the state budget or a municipal budget

These grants are not considered to be financial support as they are granted on the basis of conditions laid down in the law or decided in the budget. In practice, a subsidy is granted by a decision that can also be appealed.

Contributions collected by political parties or party associations from elected municipal or wellbeing services county officials and MP’s contributions

Contributions collected from elected municipal or wellbeing services county officials and MPs' contributions are meeting fees collected by political parties from persons elected for positions of trust. Contributions collected from elected municipal or country officials are not regarded as support for the political party because they are not clearly included in contributions that are part of ordinary organisational activities.

As a result of the legislative amendments in 2025, the National Audit Office has also assessed that candidates' contributions are not regarded as support. The NAOF has recommended that the MPs' contributions received be disclosed in up-to-date disclosures until the end of 2023.

Contributions from EU institutions and comparable international organisations that are based on their budget

Budget-based contributions from EU institutions and comparable international organisations include, for example, normal fair value contributions, such as travel expense reimbursements that are not paid to the party as support for an election campaign.

International organisations comparable to the European Union include, for example, organisations under the United Nations.

Pass-through items between a political party, party associations and candidates

‘Pass-through items’ and ‘invoicing on a pass-through basis’ refer to a situation where, for example, a political party or district organisation purchases advertising space and subsequently invoices the candidates for the corresponding costs. The National Audit Office has recommended that various pass-through items and invoicing on a pass-through basis should be disclosed in up-to-date disclosures until the end of 2023, if the sum has exceeded EUR 1,500.

From 2024 onwards, pass-through items do not have to be disclosed in an up-to-date disclosure or the party's election funding disclosure, but they are regarded as part of ordinary organisational activities under section 8 of the Act on Political Parties. In future, only the candidate is obliged to disclose such contributions in their election funding disclosure.

Name of the payer of an election advertisement

A political party and a party association must make sure that a paid advertisement that is part of an election campaign or intended to support it shows who has paid for the advertisement.

If the advertisement has been paid by a private individual, their name may only be published with their express consent if the value of their support is less than EUR 2,000.

If the political party pays the advertisement itself, it is sufficient that the name of the party is clearly indicated on the advertisement.

The objective of the disclosure obligation is to increase transparency and to ensure that voters and the public can assess the candidates’ ties to third parties.

The National Audit Office does not oversee whether the name of the payer appears on an advertisement that is part of an election campaign. For this reason, the NAOF does not and cannot give further interpretations on how the obligation to indicate the payer of an advertisement should be implemented in practice.

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