Nearly 44,000 companies in Finland shut down operations last year, according to Statistics Finland.
The figure was higher than the previous business closure record — almost 31,000 — in 2023.
More than 16,000 companies closed down in Q4 of last year, which was nearly double the number recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The agency said that last year's closure figures were the highest seen since records started being kept in 1995.
According to Mira Kuussaari, chief actuary at Statistics Finland, one explanation for the uptick may have been due to changes in the EU's SME Directive's VAT policy.
As of 1 January 2025, the directive's so-called VAT threshold relief ended. According to the Finnish Tax Administration, the VAT relief was a form of tax credit for companies with turnovers below 30,000 euros, allowing them to claw back a portion of collected value added tax.
"However, based on the statistical data, it is not possible to know in more detail how much of the growth [in business closures] was due to that change and what proportion was due to other factors," Kuusisaari said in a press release on Wednesday.
According to Kuusisaari, bankruptcy statistics showed an increase in the number of businesses run by a single person since the beginning of 2021.
In Q4 of last year, more than 9,000 businesses were started, reflecting a 4.3 percent decrease compared to the same period the previous year. However, there was an overall increase in the number of new business openings in 2024, according to the agency.
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