You must apply for registration of title within six months of the signing of the deed of sale, conveyance or gift. The estate does not need to apply for registration of title to an inherited forest, but registration must be applied for after the distribution of inheritance.
Checklist for new forest owners
Congratulations on your new forest estate! We’ve compiled a checklist of the matters that should be handled first when embarking on forest ownership. We will describe the tasks that you must take care of, as well as the services we offer to support you. Help is always available. Should you have any questions, please contact our nearest forest specialist or customer service!
New forest owner, remember this:
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Apply for registration of title to your forest estate
If you have received or purchased a forest estate, you must apply for registration of title to it from the National Land Survey of Finland.
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Register for VAT
If the forest estate’s sales for the financial period exceed EUR 15,000, you must register for VAT. Registration is possible even if the limit of EUR 15,000 is not exceeded.
If you have been entered in the VAT register, you can be refunded for the VAT included in your forestry-related purchases. Individual taxpayers register for VAT in the Tax Administration’s MyTax service. You will also receive a business ID. Detailed instructions are available on the Tax Administration’s website.
A forest partnership can also register for VAT in MyTax if it already has a business ID. If no previous business ID exists, the partnership must file a start-up notification and register for VAT at the same time. Further information is available in the business information system.
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Become a Metsä owner-member
When you become an owner-member of Metsä Group, you are entitled to our member services and best benefits, such as investment products and bonuses on wood trade and forest management services.
Your membership in the cooperative constitutes a participation share investment yielding an annual interest.* As an owner of Metsä, you also have the chance to influence matters in a significant Finnish forest industry group. Owner-members who sell wood regularly are entitled to additional bonuses if they enter into a membership benefit agreement or forest asset management agreement with us.
* Previous profit distribution is not a guarantee of future returns on a forest owner’s investments. -
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Get to know your forest specialist
When you become an owner-member of Metsä, you are never alone with your forest. You will be assigned a personal forest specialist in the municipality where your forest is located. The specialist will help you in all forest- and membership-related matters.
The contact information of your forest specialist you can find here. At the beginning of your forest ownership, you can arrange for a tour of the estate with the forest specialist to determine the need for felling and other forestry work on your forest estate. The forest specialist can also tell you about any nature values on your forest estate and advise you on how to take them into account in forestry work. After the tour, you will receive an offer on felling and forestry work to be carried out. Tours of forest estates are free of charge to owner-members.
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The forest plan makes it easier to plan felling and forestry work
The forest plan is a handy way to get to know your forest. It is an individual handbook of your forest estate, drawn up by a professional, which takes into account your wishes and goals as a forest owner.
The forest plan contains a proposal for felling and forestry work over the next decade. If your forest estate does not yet have a forest plan, or if the plan is more than ten years old, now would be a good time to order a new plan from our forest specialist. With your forest plan transferred to our digital Metsäverkko service, you can keep it up-to-date at all times.
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You decide how to manage your forest
It’s worthwhile managing your forest. The better you manage it, the more it increases in value. By managing your forest properly, you also maintain the carbon sinks of forests. You decide how your forest is managed, and whether you handle forestry yourself or order it from us.
As our owner-member, you can outsource all your forest management work to us if you wish. You do not need prior competence or training in forestry to manage your forest well, since our forest specialists are here to help you. They will provide you with high-quality materials and professionals to take care of your forest. Find out more about our forestry services here.
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Successful wood sales with us
Felling carried out in a timely manner from a forest management perspective helps secure the growth of your forest. Your forest specialist can provide information about alternative forest management and felling methods and schedules to support your decision-making.
You can engage in easy and effortless wood sales with us. We will handle all the stages of wood trade, from planning the felling site to transporting the trees. We will keep you up-to-date on what is happening in your forest. If you wish, you can handle wood sales from beginning to end electronically through Metsäverkko. If you are an owner-member, you will receive a regular bonus for wood trade and can invest income from wood trade in additional shares of Metsäliitto Cooperative.
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Learn more about forest taxation
All forest owners have to deal with forest taxation at least once a year. Forest owners and partnerships liable for VAT must file a forest tax return by the end of February.
If you do not have income or expenses from forestry, or forestry-related provisions and deductions, you are not required to file a forest tax return.
The tax tool available to our owner-members in the Metsäverkko service makes tax accounting and the filing of tax returns easy. You can record your forestry-related income and expenses in the tool over the year and then easily complete your tax return at year-end. The tax tool also provides instructions to save you having to learn and remember everything on your own.