Grant payment, social security and taxation

GENERAL PAYMENT GUIDELINES

Kone Foundation grants are paid out monthly by the third working day of the month. Payments may also be made to bank accounts outside Finland and the SEPA region. Payments made to foreign bank accounts might take some additional time.

The personal monthly grants are paid directly to the project member’s personal account. The grants are paid when the work that the grant has been intended for takes place. A full monthly grant is paid out only when the grantee works in the project full-time, not up front or after the work has ended.

Find the payment schedule for the year 2025 here.

Details regarding awarded grants and instructions for how to submit a payment request are available on the online service. To access the payment request page, log in to the online service and enter the identification code for payment requests included in your letter of approval.

FILLING IN A PAYMENT REQUEST

The grant is paid on the basis of a payment request submitted by the 10th day of the month preceding the month of payment. Payment requests for organisations and working groups must be submitted by the person responsible for the project. Please create a payment schedule for the entire duration of the project at once, if possible. Should any changes regarding your payment schedule occur, you can edit a request that has already been confirmed.

Fill in the payment schedule for monthly grants and possible other expenses. Funding for other expenses are primarily paid in one instalment per year, in which case they can be used throughout the year. Other costs are preferably paid into a bank account of a legal entity with a business ID. Funding for expenses paid to a university account can be disbursed in full at once, for example, in the case of multi-year projects. 

If any salary or remuneration is issued from other expenses, the person responsible for the project must remember that it is their own responsibility to comply with all employer obligations, statutory payments and tax requirements. Kone Foundation only covers the other expenses and cannot assist with practical administrative matters. For more information about the payment of salaries and related matters, please visit Palkka.fi (in Finnish and Swedish).

Do you need help filling in the payment request? Please see an instructional video here.

Please note that any changes to personal grant payment schedule may affect the grantee’s MYEL insurance coverage. Grantees are obligated to immediately inform MELA about any changes regarding grant payments.

Please be aware that each year, Kone Foundation office is closed in July and new payment requests will not be processed. All instalments confirmed to be paid will be issued as agreed.

CHANGES TO THE PROJECT

The funding should primarily be used for the purpose for which it was awarded. If the concept of the project, composition of the working group, working percentage or any other key element changes, the person responsible for the project must submit a change request via the online service.

Please explain your reasoning on the change request form: What has changed after the grant decision and why? The request for change will be processed within approximately one month of receiving it.

If the project proposal included an anonymous grantee/grantees, the person responsible for the project must also submit a change request to confirm the identity of these grantees. Please attach the CV for any new grantee on the “Change request” page. A payment request for this grantee can only be submitted after the change request has been confirmed.

Smaller grants are available (25%, 50% or 75% of full grant) for part-time work. For changes to the work amount, the person responsible for the project must send the change request. For changes to your project’s timetable, it is usually enough to submit a new payment request.

Do you need help filling in the change request? Please see an instructional video.

It is important to note that grantees themselves must contact MELA regarding possible changes to their grants. Before making any changes, we recommend that grant recipients inquire from MELA how these changes will affect their insurance coverage and, in particular, the insurance period.

SUSPENSION OF PAYMENTS, BREAKS IN THE PAYMENT SCHEDULE AND GRANT CANCELLATION

If you are granted support from another funding body or accept work in a salaried position, that will affect your Kone Foundation grant; please inform us immediately. You must also inform us of any military service, parental leave to look after children under 3 years of age, or sick leave. For the majority of such cases, the grant will be suspended and paid later.

If a grantee with MYEL insurance goes on sick leave, they may be eligible for a Mela’s sickness allowance. Payment of the grant must be suspended during sick leave. Further details can be obtained from Mela.

If you have a full-time grant, you can work elsewhere for a maximum of 25% of your total work time. Recipients of annual grants can take around one month of holiday per year without their grant being suspended.

If the grant is not used according to the instructions, any grants not yet received may be cancelled and grants already received may be claimed for recovery.  

A grant that has not been used within the time period specified above is considered cancelled. The recipient will not be notified of the cancellation. 

SOCIAL SECURITY AND INSURANCE PAYMENTS

The Farmers’ Social Insurance Institution (Maatalousyrittäjien eläkelaitos, Mela) provides pension, accident, and group life insurance coverage for grant recipients in Finland. Statutory insurance payments are approximately 15–20% of the monthly grant.

Kone Foundation will inform Mela of individuals or groups who have received funding for periods of four months or more and whose grants exceed the minimum level for pension payments (€4,605 in earnings per year in 2025).

It is the grantees’ responsibility to contact Mela to arrange pension coverage.

Kone Foundation has not limited the amount of expenses of the personal monthly grant. You may deduct expenses of your personal monthly grant according to Mela’s guidelines.

Mela notifies the tax authorities directly of grant recipients’ pension payments.

It is important to note that grant recipients themselves must contact Mela regarding possible changes to their grants. Before making changes to payment schedules, we recommend that grant recipients inquire from Mela how these changes will affect their insurance coverage and, in particular, the length of the insurance period.

If a grantee with MYEL insurance goes on sick leave, they may be eligible for a Mela sickness allowance. Payment of the grant must be suspended during sick leave. 

Further information on social security for grant recipients can be obtained from Mela. The material from the Mela info session held on 10 February 2025 is available here.

TAXATION

Grants are tax-exempt in Finland up to the amount equivalent to the Finnish state grants for artists (€26 269,46 in 2024). Please note that all full annual grants awarded by Kone Foundation exceed this limit.

Kone Foundation is not an employer for the grant recipients and the personal monthly grant is not a salary. Therefore, Kone Foundation grantees do not send a tax deduction card to the Foundation. The Foundation does not deduct any taxes from the grants, even when the amount of funding already paid to the recipient within the same calendar year exceeds the maximum tax-exempt amount. Kone Foundation is not liable for Value Added Tax, and the Foundation does not have a VAT number.

Kone Foundation notifies the Finnish tax authorities in January of the grants paid out during the previous year. The grant recipient must report it in their tax declaration.

Please consult the tax administration on the deductibility of expenses such as pension payments, books and materials and travel expenses.

TAXATION OF OTHER EXPENSES FOR INDIVIDUAL OR WORKING GROUP WITHOUT FINNISH BUSINESS ID

Kone Foundation annually reports the payments of other expenses in grant projects when the applicant is an individual or a working group represented by the person responsible for the project. In these cases, the other expenses will all be listed under the person responsible for the project and will be visible in their pre-completed tax return.

The person responsible for the project must then explain the other expenses online in MyTax (OmaVero).

FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT TAXATION MATTERS REGARDING GRANTS

Finnish Tax Administration

CERTIFICATE ON THE FUNDING

In most cases, the funding approval letter serves as a valid certificate that proves you have been awarded a Kone Foundation grant.

If the grantee requires proof of payment of the grant, the person responsible for the project can download a certificate in PDF format from the online service on the “Payment request” page for each grantee (Account info > small PDF icon below “Monthly grant recipient”).