Statistics on the finances of agricultural and forestry enterprises: documentation of statistics

The statistics on the finances of agricultural and forestry enterprises were published for the first time for the reference year 2005. The statistics replace the agricultural enterprise and income statistics produced from 1973 to 2004 as well as the agricultural income and tax statistics. The statistics are published only on Statistics Finland’s Internet pages. The data content of the statistics describe the economic activities and structures of agricultural and forestry enterprises operating in Finland. The main sources of data for the statistics are tax data on farm enterprises, the Farm Register and a direct statistical survey aimed at farms. Agriculture and forestry are examined separately. The data are classified by area, production sector and farm size category.

There are actually several population groups in the statistics on the finances of agricultural and forestry enterprises. When processing matters specific to agricultural enterprises (Section 1), the population refers to all units liable to pay taxes according to the act on the taxation of agriculture. In the examination based on personal taxation data (Section 2), the population is formed by natural owners of the preceding agricultural enterprises and their spouses who have a farm included in the Farm Register. In Section 3 on forestry, the population is formed from private forest owners according to the Tax Administration.

In some cases, data on more than one taxable person can be added for one farm. Then the bigger unit liable for tax based on turnover is selected as the active enterprise. This situation is common, for example, in the years following the change of generation of the farm, when the old farmer may receive accrued animal sales income subject to taxation and so on. In this case, the old and new farmers are treated as separate statistical units.

Compared to the statistics on other entrepreneurial activity, a farm can be regarded as the enterprise's property and establishment. Resources are owned or leased by a legal unit that financially strives for compensation and profit for its work and capital. Thus an entrepreneur (= legal unit) and a farm (= establishment) together form an enterprise. The use of a farm as a statistical unit for economic statistics has become increasingly blurred from the late 1960s when agriculture moved from area-based taxation to taxation of the difference between the entrepreneur's actual income and expenditure in agriculture.
 

Euros, millions of euros, area in hectares, average age and number.

The annual statistics are released at a lag of around 14 months.

The statistics concern agriculture inside Finland.

The statistics on the finances of agricultural and forestry enterprises cover production subject to taxation according to the act on income tax of agriculture.

The statistics on the finances of agricultural and forestry enterprises were published for the first time for the reference year 2005. The statistics replace the agricultural enterprise and income statistics produced from 1973 to 2004 as well as the agricultural income and tax statistics. The new statistical reference year is published in the spring.

The statistics are published once a year in March to April.

In terms of total data, the data are based on administrative data registers, so the correctness of the data is verified by both the Tax Administration and agricultural administration authorities. Most of the variables in the taxation data were drawn from the Tax Administration's databases only at the time when the taxation was completed, so these data have passed the tax preparation process.

Due to tax legislation, there are differences in recording farmers' pension and accident insurance contributions between agricultural enterprises. These insurance contributions can be recorded as expenditure either on agriculture form 2 or on the personal tax return. The data received from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry are mostly related to applying for agricultural subsidies, so the data given are monitored on the basis of EU legislation. Giving false information will result in a sanction.

The register data of the Tax Administration and agricultural administration have been combined automatically. In some cases the data of the farm and the correct legal unit have not necessarily met.

The statistics are published annually. Tax data are completed at a lag of almost one year from the end of the reference year, so the release lag of the statistics is over one year from the end of the reference year.

From 1973 to 2004, Statistics Finland published data corresponding to these statistics both in the agricultural enterprise and income statistics and in the agricultural income and tax statistics. Comparable data are thus available for over 30 years. However, several changes in legislation and source data make it difficult to make comparisons. In the following, certain changes that make comparisons difficult:

• From 1994 onwards, expenditure residues on buildings of under FIM 6,000 had to be removed at once.
• From 1995 onwards, most farms became liable to pay value added tax. For the period prior to this, all income and expenditure items include value added tax.
• Since 1995 milk quotas have been included in agricultural resources
• In 2004, the taxation form for agriculture was completely revised as regards its content and total data were taken into use in the taxation data.
• Starting from 2004, the statistical unit and the population of the statistics have been defined in a new way.

When comparing personal taxation data, the following factors should be taken into account: in 1993 separate tax principles were introduced for the earned income and capital income of natural persons and estates. The groups were no longer separate units liable to pay taxes but their income has been distributed entirely to shareholders since 1993. At that time, the biggest changes made to the deduction system concerned the right to deduct interest. Other changes concerned, for example, distribution of income sources, tax recipients and taxation procedure. The revenue sources are the income source of business activities, the income source of agriculture and the income source of personal income. Income from forestry has not belonged to the same income source as agriculture since 1993, but to personal income. The change in the distribution of income sources meant that losses could no longer be deducted from the income of another income source (with the exception of losses from the income source deductible from capital income).

The income distribution statistics and the Household Budget Survey published by Statistics Finland are sample surveys that contain income and consumption data on different population groups. In these statistics, agricultural entrepreneurs are included as one socio-economic group. The statistical unit is household. A household is formed of all those persons who live together and have meals together or otherwise use their income together. There are some differences in the definitions of the income distribution statistics and the Household Budget Survey, and the data may also differ for reasons related to sampling and production methods.

The statistics on income and property are based on taxation data and they are compiled from register data. The statistical unit of the statistics on income and property is a private person. The topic described in the statistics on income and property is narrower than in the income distribution statistics or the Household Budget Survey.

The concepts describing the agricultural sector in the national accounts differ from the concepts used in these statistics. Significant differences arise in the treatment of subsidies, accrual basis, survey target and source data, for example.

The Farm Register is a set of statistics published by the Information Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry containing data on the numbers of farms, areas of land use types, ownership ratios, production lines and age structure of farmers. The arable land area of farms is measured by means of the arable land under control, which is at least equal to the cultivated area. The population of the Farm Register comprises such farms that have at least one hectare of arable land in their farming, or the economic size of the farm is at least one European size unit (ESU), i.e. EUR 1,200. The name statistical Farm Register is also used for this group of farms. The Farm Register is primarily compiled based on data from the rural business register. The data are supplemented with a direct statistical inquiry concerning farms not having applied for subsidies. There are no tax-form requirements in the Farm Register.

MTT Agrifood Research Finland keeps accounts on the profitability of agriculture based on double-entry bookkeeping data of the farmers who are bound by it. Included are some 1,000 agricultural, horticultural and reindeer enterprises. Monetary income and expenditure from tax accounting, farm data, production volumes, changes in property and number of hours worked are collected from farms. The data are collected and entered into the information system by the rural centre and MTT checks them and enters financial statements and economic key figures for the farms.
 

The main sources of data for the statistics are tax data on farm enterprises, data from the register of farms and gardens and a direct statistical survey aimed at farms.

An accompanying letter is sent to the data providers, containing the identifiers for the XCola web form, which is the main response channel. In addition, it is possible to deliver the data direct to Statistics Finland as XBRL data transfer in the accounting programs widely used by farmers.

The form inquiry is sent to data providers once a year in January.

The sampling design includes a rotating panel, where around one-half of the sample changes annually. Thus, the same farm is usually included in the survey for two years. The sampling design consisted of stratified simple random sampling without replacement. The main stratification criteria were the production line and farm size. The sample was allocated according to the Neyman quota and the quota variable was the previous year's result from agriculture.

The results obtained from the sample are weighted to correspond to the figures obtained from the total data. In order to improve the accuracy of the estimation, post-stratification was made, the main criteria of which were the legal form of the agricultural enterprise and the EU subsidy area. After this a weighting coefficient was calculated for each stratum and the weights were calibrated for all approved agricultural enterprises in the sample. With calibration, the data on the accepted farms can be made to correspond to the distributions in the target population with regard to the variables to be calibrated. All the values (estimates) obtained with sample surveys are marked with an asterisk in the database tables appended to the statistics. An estimate is an estimation of a quality of the population derived with a mathematical formula by utilising the value of sample observations.

In terms of total data, the data are based on administrative data registers, so the correctness of the data is verified by both the Tax Administration and agricultural administration authorities. Most of the variables in the taxation data were drawn from the Tax Administration's databases only at the time when the taxation was completed, so these data have passed the tax preparation process.

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The compilation of statistics is guided by the general act of the national statistical service, the Statistics Act (280/2004, amend. 361/2013). Only the necessary data that are not available from administrative data sources are collected from data suppliers. Index series are published so that no individual enterprise's data or development can be deduced from them.

The data protection of data collected for statistical purposes is absolutely guaranteed in accordance with the Statistics Act (280/2004), the Personal Data Act (532/1999) and the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999), as well as the requirements of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679). The data materials are protected at all stages of processing with the necessary physical and technical solutions. Statistics Finland has compiled detailed directions and instructions for confidential processing of the data. Employees have access only to the data essential for their duties. The premises where unit-level data are processed are not accessible to outsiders. Members of the personnel have signed a pledge of secrecy upon entering the service. Wilful breaching of data protection is punishable.

The data materials are protected at all stages of processing with the necessary physical and technical solutions. Unit-specific data of the calculation data must be kept undisclosed. Data are handled only by persons who need the data in their work. The use of data is restricted by usage rights. The statistics are formed by processing a large number of different statistics and other data sources. The aggregation of data in the process, the compilation-time evaluation related to data quality, detailed prioritisation of sources and measures related to total level balancing produce an end result that does not enable identification of individual data producers.

Statistics Finland's release calendar lists in advance all the statistical data and publications to be released over the year. Statistical releases can be found under statistics-specific releases. Statistical data are released on the Internet at 8 am, unless otherwise indicated. The calendar is updated on weekdays. Statistics Finland's release calendar for the coming year is published every year in December.

The data are used in the compiling of national accounts.

The statistics are published on Statistics Finland's website.

Revisions – i.e. improvements in the accuracy of statistical data already published – are a normal feature of statistical production and result in improved quality of statistics. The principle is that statistical data are based on the best available data and information concerning the statistical phenomenon. On the other hand, the revisions are communicated as transparently as possible in advance. Advance communication ensures that the users can prepare for the data revisions.

The reason why data in statistical releases become revised is often caused by the data becoming supplemented. Then the new, revised statistical figure is based on a wider information basis and describes the phenomenon more accurately than before.

Revisions of statistical data may also be caused by the calculation method used, such as annual benchmarking or updating of weight structures. Changes of base years and used classifications may also cause revisions to data.

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF) are a comprehensive collection of statistics describing the development and state of society. They comprise nearly 300 sets of statistics on 26 different topics. The producers of Official Statistics of Finland have approved a common quality assurance in which they commit to common quality criteria and quality assurance measures. The quality criteria of Official Statistics of Finland are compatible with the European Statistics Code of Practice. The good practices followed in the statistics are presented in Statistics Finland's Quality Guidelines for Official Statistics handbook.

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More information about this is available on Statistics Finland's quality management pages.

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